PESA production and development review 2009

2010 ◽  
Vol 50 (1) ◽  
pp. 121
Author(s):  
Geoff Humphreys

Australian hydrocarbon production reached record levels in 2009 due to strong growth in production of LNG from the North West Shelf Venture. Domestic gas production also reached record levels. Coal seam gas production continued to grow, with the continuing development of existing fields and the development of the Kenya and Talinga projects in Queensland. Two new conventional gas projects also came into production: Blacktip in the Timor Sea and Longtom in the Gippsland Basin. However oil production was below that in the previous year, reflecting natural field decline and the absence of large scale projects reaching production. The project sanction highlight of the year was the final investment decision on the $43 billion Gorgon LNG project. This project will comprise three LNG trains with total capacity of 15 million tonnes per annum plus a domestic gas plant. The first gas from this project is planned for 2014. Eight other potential LNG projects are in various stages of front end engineering and design, most targeting final investment decisions in 2010 or 2011. The pipeline of committed and potential LNG projects has a combined value estimated to be well over $100 billion. These projects have the potential to significantly increase Australian LNG production over the next five to ten years. In the near term the start-up of the Van Gogh, Pyrenees and Turrum oil projects are expected to provide some respite from the decline in Australian oil production. Cost estimates for new projects are again escalating and skills shortages in all parts of the project delivery chain threaten the ability to deliver all of the projects under consideration.

2013 ◽  
Vol 53 (1) ◽  
pp. 165
Author(s):  
Jeff Jurinak ◽  
Bruce Anderson

2012 was a pivotal year for Australian petroleum development and production, during a dynamic time in our region, and globally. Australian activity headlines are LNG, the continuing pace and scale of the development of major projects, and record national petroleum production. LNG development in Australia is proceeding apace, with seven sanctioned projects under construction in WA and Queensland. The scale of the major projects underway is being felt with competition for skills, materials and services driving cost inflationary pressures and, coupled with other factors—such as an historically high Australian dollar—has resulted in several announced budget increases and schedule slippages. In addition, the regulatory framework is evolving, as regulators adapt to new industry trends and technologies. Proponents of future developments and expansions will be seeking to sanction in a tougher, but potentially better-informed development environment. Overall, national hydrocarbon production increased to a record high in 2012, attributable to a number of factors, but not least of which was the commissioning and successful start of commercial production of the Woodside-operated Pluto LNG development from the Pluto and Xena fields in the Carnarvon basin. Pluto was the first commissioned project since 2006, and may be viewed as the first of a number of developments that will be coming on-stream in the next few years, and will elevate Australia’s position in the ranking of world LNG production. Adding production from Pluto has allowed Woodside to take the lead position as the highest petroleum producer from BHP Billiton during 2012. Activity is not limited to LNG. Other highlights for 2012 included the opening of the Devil Creek project on the North West Shelf, WA’s third domestic gas hub, with the potential to supply around 20% of the state’s needs. Cost increase and schedule delay is not limited to LNG either, with Yolla mid-life enhancement and the Kipper offshore development facing cost and schedule pressure. In the broader global sphere, the highlight of 2012 is the extraordinary rise of unconventional oil in the US to the point of speculation about future US self-sufficiency. This parallels the rise of US unconventional gas in recent years, with gas supplies exceeding existing domestic demand and driving down the previously high domestic prices. Presently, only one US LNG project is approved for export; however, with an ongoing policy debate in the US about significant gas export verses retention to spur domestic growth, and favourable location of potential US access to the Asian market, the outcome is important for future competition to Australia’s cost-challenged LNG industry. Among this the announcement by Santos of the connection of the first shale gas well in Australia to sales delivery—albeit as an appraisal well—is a notable occurrence as a potential forerunner of shale gas production in Australia.


2008 ◽  
Vol 48 (1) ◽  
pp. 423
Author(s):  
Jim Willetts

Australian petroleum production was close to record levels in 2007 with higher oil production and expansion of domestic gas, LNG and coal seam gas production. Growth in coal seam gas production has reached the point where it is not only providing a significant supply source for domestic gas and power station projects, but is proposed as the source of supply to no less than four potential LNG export plants in Queensland. Five new oil and gas developments came on stream during the year. Four final investment decisions were taken on major projects, the largest being the Pluto project in the Carnarvon Basin. The pipeline of committed and potential projects now includes about 25 significant petroleum projects with a combined value of over $100 billion. Together these have the potential to significantly increase Australian production in the next five to ten years, primarily through growing gas production. In the near term significant new oil projects carry the prospect of higher oil production in 2008. Cost estimates for new projects continued to escalate sharply and skills shortages in all parts of the project delivery chain threaten the ability to deliver all of the projects as contemplated.


2014 ◽  
Vol 54 (1) ◽  
pp. 451
Author(s):  
Geoff O'Brien ◽  
Monica Campi ◽  
Graeme Bethune

The boom in Australian oil and gas development continued in 2013, with record overall investment of $60 billion. This investment resulted from spending on the seven LNG projects under development, together with that on numerous other oil and gas developments. These projects are expected to collectively contribute up to 665 million barrels of oil equivalent (MMboe) to Australia’s oil and gas production, which totaled 513.8 MMboe in 2013. LNG, presently Australia’s seventh largest export, is likely to soon rival the nation’s largest export, iron ore. By the end of 2013, three of the LNG projects under construction—Gorgon, Queensland Curtis LNG (QCLNG) and Gladstone LNG (GLNG)—were more than 70% complete; first LNG will be before the end of 2014 for QCLNG and in 2015 for Gorgon, GLNG and Australia Pacific LNG (APLNG). The other three LNG projects—Wheatstone, Prelude and Ichthys—are close behind. These new LNG projects follow Pluto, Australia’s third LNG project, which commenced production in 2012. A full year of production from Pluto drove increased gas production in 2013. Woodside also completed the North Rankin redevelopment and continued development of the Greater Western Flank, both of which will extend the life of the North West Shelf (NWS) project. A number of other projects also commenced production. In the Carnarvon Basin, oil production began at Santos’s Fletcher-Finucane Field, and at BHP Billiton’s Macedon project, domestic gas production started. In the Timor Sea, PTTEP’s Montara Field began production of oil. In Victoria, the ExxonMobil Kipper-Turrum-Tuna project came online, with the production of gas from Tuna and oil from Turrum. Production of gas from Origin Energy’s Geographe Field (as part of the Otway Gas Project) commenced in mid-2013. Onshore oil production grew in 2013, with the Cooper-Eromanga Basin now producing more oil than any other onshore Australian basin. A major effort is underway to increase production from the western flank oil trend and to develop both the conventional and unconventional gas fields in the Cooper Basin. Spending on the development of new projects probably peaked in 2013 and there is growing concern about a dearth of future projects, with expansion of existing LNG projects and development of new projects being pushed back due to a combination of increased costs and growing international competition. There are also ongoing industry concerns about impediments to onshore gas exploration and development generally.


2003 ◽  
pp. 136-146
Author(s):  
K. Liuhto

Statistical data on reserves, production and exports of Russian oil are provided in the article. The author pays special attention to the expansion of opportunities of sea oil transportation by construction of new oil terminals in the North-West of the country and first of all the largest terminal in Murmansk. In his opinion, one of the main problems in this sphere is prevention of ecological accidents in the process of oil transportation through the Baltic sea ports.


Author(s):  
Ivan V. ZYKIN

During the years of Soviet power, principal changes took place in the country’s wood industry, including in spatial layout development. Having the large-scale crisis in the industry in the late 1980s — 2000s and the positive changes in its functioning in recent years and the development of an industry strategy, it becomes relevant to analyze the experience of planning the spatial layout of the wood industry during the period of Stalin’s modernization, particularly during the first five-year plan. The aim of the article is to analyze the reason behind spatial layout of the Soviet wood industry during the implementation of the first five-year plan. The study is based on the modernization concept. In our research we conducted mapping of the wood industry by region as well as of planned construction of the industry facilities. It was revealed that the discussion and development of an industrialization project by the Soviet Union party-state and planning agencies in the second half of the 1920s led to increased attention to the wood industry. The sector, which enterprises were concentrated mainly in the north-west, west and central regions of the country, was set the task of increasing the volume of harvesting, export of wood and production to meet the domestic needs and the export needs of wood resources and materials. Due to weak level of development of the wood industry, the scale of these tasks required restructuring of the branch, its inclusion to the centralized economic system, the direction of large capital investments to the development of new forest areas and the construction of enterprises. It was concluded that according to the first five-year plan, the priority principles for the spatial development of the wood industry were the approach of production to forests and seaports, intrasectoral and intersectoral combining. The framework of the industry was meant to strengthen and expand by including forests to the economic turnover and building new enterprises in the European North and the Urals, where the main capital investments were sent, as well as in the Vyatka region, Transcaucasia, Siberia and the Far East.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brad Riley

This paper examines renewable energy developments on Aboriginal lands in North-West Western Australia at three scales. It first examines the literature developing in relation to large scale renewable energy projects and the Native Title Act (1993)Cwlth. It then looks to the history of small community scale standalone systems. Finally, it examines locally adapted approaches to benefit sharing in remote utility owned networks. In doing so this paper foregrounds the importance of Aboriginal agency. It identifies Aboriginal decision making and economic inclusion as being key to policy and project development in the 'scaling up' of a transition to renewable energy resources in the North-West.


2021 ◽  
Vol 61 (2) ◽  
pp. 325
Author(s):  
Barry E. Bradshaw ◽  
Meredith L. Orr ◽  
Tom Bernecker

Australia is endowed with abundant, high-quality energy commodity resources, which provide reliable energy for domestic use and underpin our status as a major global energy provider. Australia has the world’s largest economic uranium resources, the third largest coal resources and substantial conventional and unconventional natural gas resources. Since 2015, Australia’s gas production has grown rapidly. This growth has been driven by a series of new liquefied natural gas (LNG) projects on the North West Shelf, together with established coal seam gas projects in Queensland. Results from Geoscience Australia’s 2021 edition of Australia’s energy commodity resources assessment highlight Australia’s endowment with abundant and widely distributed energy commodity resources. Knowledge of Australia’s existing and untapped energy resource potential provides industry and policy makers with a trusted source of data to compare and understand the value of these key energy commodities to domestic and world markets. A key component of Australia’s low emissions future will be the development of a hydrogen industry, with hydrogen being produced either through electrolysis of water using renewable energy resources (‘green’ hydrogen), or manufactured from natural gas or coal gasification, with carbon capture and storage of the co-produced carbon dioxide (‘blue’ hydrogen). Australia’s endowment with abundant natural gas resources will be a key enabler for our transition to a low emissions future through providing economically competitive feedstock for ‘blue’ hydrogen.


2005 ◽  
Vol 45 (1) ◽  
pp. 13
Author(s):  
A.J. McDiarmid ◽  
P.T. Bingaman ◽  
S.T. Bingham ◽  
B. Kirk-Burnnand ◽  
D.P. Gilbert ◽  
...  

The John Brookes gas field was discovered by the drilling of John Brookes–1 in October 1998 and appraisal drilling was completed in 2003. The field is located about 40 km northwest of Barrow Island on the North West Shelf, offshore West Australia. The John Brookes structure is a large (>90 km2) anticline with >100 m closure mapped at the base of the regional seal. Recoverable sales gas in the John Brookes reservoir is about 1 Tcf.Joint venture approval to fast track the development was gained in January 2004 with a target of first gas production in June 2005. The short development time frame required parallel workflows and use of a flexible/low cost development approach proven by Apache in the area.The John Brookes development is sized for off-take rates up to 240 TJ/d of sales gas with the development costing A$229 million. The initial development will consist of three production wells tied into an unmanned, minimal facility wellhead platform. The platform will be connected to the existing East Spar gas processing facilities on Varanus Island by an 18-inch multi-phase trunkline. Increasing the output of the existing East Spar facility and installation of a new gas sweetening facility are required. From Varanus Island, the gas will be exported to the mainland by existing sales gas pipelines. Condensate will be exported from Varanus Island by tanker.


2009 ◽  
Vol 49 (1) ◽  
pp. 205
Author(s):  
Mark Thompson ◽  
M Royd Bussell ◽  
Michael Wilkins ◽  
Dave Tapley ◽  
Jenny Auckland

Expansion of the North West Shelf Venture (NWSV) production infrastructure is driving plans for sequential development of the small satellite fields. The desire for additional gas reserves has fuelled increased exploration and appraisal drilling in recent years with encouraging results. The NWSV area is a complex geologic environment with multiple play levels, petroleum systems and trapping styles. Seismic imaging is poor in many areas, primarily due to multiple contamination. In 2004, the NWSV acquired the leading edge, regional Demeter 3D Seismic Survey. Since then, continuous application of improved processing techniques, such as 3D Surface-related Multiple Elimination (SRME) and Pre-Stack Depth Migration (PreSDM), have been key to providing significant imaging enhancements. Exploration drilling based on Demeter data resulted in three significant new gas discoveries. Pemberton–1 (2006) explored Triassic sub-cropping sands in a horst block at the southwestern end of the Rankin Trend. The well encountered an upside gas column due to the presence of intra-Mungaroo Formation shales providing a base-seal trapping geometry. Lady Nora–1 (2007) tested the fault block west of the Pemberton horst and encountered a 102 m gross gas column with gas on rock. The upside result accelerated a near term appraisal opportunity at Lady Nora–2 (2008). Persephone–1 (2006) drilled a down-thrown Legendre Formation dip closure in the Eaglehawk graben. Success relied on the sealing potential of the North Rankin Field bounding fault. In spite of pressure depletion associated with over 20 years of production, Persephone–1 encountered a 151 m gross gas column at virgin pressures and a different gas-water contact to North Rankin. The result demonstrated active and significant fault seal along the major North Rankin Field bounding fault. These recent, successful exploration wells have resulted in identification of follow-up drilling opportunities and a drive for ongoing seismic imaging improvements. The discoveries have material impacts on NWSV development plans for the Greater Western Flank and in the vicinity of the Perseus, North Rankin and Goodwyn gas fields.


2017 ◽  
Vol 57 (2) ◽  
pp. 363
Author(s):  
Frankie Cullen

In 2016, sustained depressed and volatile oil prices led companies to continue cost reduction strategies. Proposed developments have seen delays and reductions in scope as a result. Australian oil production declined by around 10%. However, new and continued liquefied natural gas (LNG) production bolstered both Australian and global gas supply. Australia was the strongest contributor to global LNG growth in 2016, showing the biggest year-on-year increase. In the first half of 2016, 20% of global LNG came from Australia, second only to Qatar with 29% of the market share. Australia remains on track to become the world’s largest LNG producer in the next 3–5 years. 2016 saw the start-up of Gorgon LNG in March, the first of Chevron’s two North West Shelf LNG projects and the third of several producing, developing and proposed LNG projects within the North Carnarvon Basin – already Australia’s most prolific producing basin. On the east coast, development of the coalbed methane (CBM) to LNG projects continued with an additional train brought onstream at each of the Origin/ConocoPhillips-operated APLNG Project and Santos’ GLNG Project. This further increased production in the Bowen–Surat Basins and drove discussions around the ability of east coast gas to meet both the demands of the LNG projects and ensure continued domestic gas reliability. Additional gas may be required for both, opening opportunities for production from other basins. Gas production continues to drive the Australian industry, with substantial inputs from LNG and unconventional operations. The next phase, in all sectors, will be key to Australia’s future in the global energy market. Will it be able to overcome the expected challenges of global oversupply, continued price volatility and domestic reliability concerns to fulfil its potential?


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