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AWE strikes gas at Waitsia in the Perth Basin

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AWE Limited has toasted the taste of hydrocarbons with its appraisal of the Waitsia gas field north of Perth successfully encountering gas at the first target level. The company reported that the Waitsia-4 appraisal well has successfully intersected the Kingia formation, with good gas shows observed and wireline logs to be acquired to confirm reservoir quality. The well is now drilling towards the second primary target, the High Cliff Sandstone, and is expected to take five weeks to...

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WA onshore release areas for petroleum exploration

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The Department of Mines, Industry Regulation and Safety (DMIRS) continues to promote the petroleum potential of Western Australia’s vast sedimentary basins using a specific area release system. On 16 May 2017, DMIRS gazetted a total of five onshore release areas in the central and southern Canning Basin (Fig.1). Release area size ranges from 5324 km2 to 6667 km2. This gazettal was timed to coincide with the 2017 APPEA Conference in Pert, reports Richard Bruce, DMIRS exploration geologist...

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Gorgon boosts Chevron profit ahead of Wheatstone start-up

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Chevron has reported a net income of $1,45 billion for the second quarter, a significant reversal from a loss of $1,47 billion a year ago. “Second quarter results improved substantially from a year ago and year-to-date net cash flow is positive,” said Chairman and CEO John Watson. “We’re delivering higher production with lower capital and operating expenditures.” Results were boosted with upstream income contributing $853 million, compared to a second quarter loss of $2.46...

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Canada’s Pacific NorthWest LNG succumbs to sluggish market forces

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Australia’s reputation as the ‘Lucky Country’ beneficiary of $200 billion LNG project investment decisions has been enhanced with news that the proposed Pacific NorthWest LNG project at Port Edward in British Columbia, Canada has been canned by its JV partners. This follows a major review of the proposed plant’s viability and revelations from Anuar Taib, Executive Vice President and CEO Upstream for majority partner Petronas, that ongoing subdued market conditions had prompted the...

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CGG completes multi-client survey to optimise Saturno field imaging

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CGG has announced the completion of an extension of its Santos VII broadband 3D multiclient survey offshore Brazil. The 1,867 sq km extension to the original footprint gives CGG a total of almost 16,000 sq km of newly acquired and imaged pre-salt coverage. CGG said the extension was made to fully image this highly prospective area after images recently delivered from the Fast-Track PSDM over a priority area of the Saturno field clearly indicated further structure to the east. This...

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Export controls risk jeopardising future gas supply

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Restricting gas exports to boost domestic supply is likely to be counterproductive, the Australian Petroleum Production & Exploration Association (APPEA) has warned. APPEA Chief Executive Dr Malcolm Roberts said the government’s proposed Australian Domestic Gas Security Mechanism (ADGSM) was a short-term fix and not a long-term solution. The Government today confirmed it has begun the formal process to consider whether the ADGSM will be required to restrict Queensland liquefied...

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China’s COSL partners Twinza Oil for drilling in PNG

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Chinese offshore services provider China Oilfield Services Limited (COSL), a Chinese offshore services has won a contract to perform drilling operations in Papua New Guinea from Australian oil and gas company, Twinza Oil. COSL said the deal represented the first time it would be operating with Twinza Oil on a project and that it would use the COSLSeeker jack-up rig, which is scheduled to arrive at Papua New Guinea in late August. The COSLSeeker will be deployed to PNG after completing...

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Japan-Russia exploration deal irks US

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The United States, according to a report in Bloomberg, is “irritated” by a signed offshore exploration cooperation agreement between Rosneft and a consortium of Japanese companies. Citing sources familiar with the issue, Bloomberg said the US believes that Japan, as part of the Group of Seven Allies, should not be working against sanctions imposed in 2014 on the Russian oil and gas industry in response to the Soviet’s annexation of Crimea. The Group of Seven Allies, known as G7,...

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US offers 76 million acres in new Gulf of Mexico lease sale

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United States Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke said his department would offer 75.9 million acres offshore Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida for oil and gas exploration and development. The lease sale, scheduled for August 16, will include all available unleased areas in federal waters of the Gulf of Mexico and provide a reduced royalty rate for shallow water leases to encourage exploration and production under current market conditions, the Department of the...

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Phillip Playford’s life is honoured and celebrated

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IT was with much sadness that PESA learned of the passing of Dr Phillip Playford AM at the age of 85 after a long battle with cancer. PESA President Toby Colson and Australia Geoscience Council President Bill Shaw both paid tribute to Dr Playford, a luminary of the geological profession, award-winning author and a remarkable man who even discovered a shipwreck, the Zuytdorp, which was the first Dutch ship to be found and identified in Western Australia. His book about the wreck, Carpet of...

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