Santos is battling blocked heat exchangers, failed subsea valves, and faulty safety doors 285km north of Darwin so it can reap the reward of high gas prices in Asia.
I worked in oil & gas in commercial and engineering roles for 20 years. Since 2016, I have written for The West Australian, WAtoday, The Guardian and Boiling Cold, winning five WA Media Awards.
Oil price oscillations, hydrogen buzz, LNG project glitches, cost cuts and safety worries, Collie coal and Mid-West wind, COVID, trading partners go net-zero, and emissions matter. Year one from Boiling Cold.
Ichthys LNG is giving Inpex and Australia a huge carbon pollution problem that is likely to grow as the Japanese company looks to troublesome carbon capture and storage to limit the environmental and financial damage.
The Australian oil and gas industry shed about 3000 jobs in 2020, a far deeper cut than the national average, leaving the offshore safety regulator NOPSEMA worried about lack of maintenance.
While Australia's offshore oil and gas industry grew safety regulator NOPSEMA was troubled by cost-cutting operators, old wells to clean up and dealing with COVID-19.
Singapore's Pavilion Energy will buy Australian LNG from Chevron with certified greenhouse emissions, in another sign that Asian buyers are favouring less carbon-intensive gas.
Woodside boss Peter Coleman said the military of Myanmar where Woodside operates "weren't being heard" and staging a coup was a "difficult decision" for the generals.
Woodside wants to sanction its $US11.4 billion Scarborough LNG project in 2021, but a legal challenge to regulatory approval for years of carbon emissions could put it in a two-year legal limbo.
The WA energy trilemma: Labor is ready to go but don’t mention coal, Liberals want to drop coal but are light on detail, the Greens want to dump gas as well, and they all love green hydrogen.
Santos' Reindeer gas field will fill with water sooner than expected and the production loss will add to concerns about the supply of gas to WA this decade.
The Liberals know where to take WA energy but probably not how to do it. Labor is on top of the detail but shy of facing the inevitable. So close to a bipartisan approach, will our political class blow it?
After 200 tonnes of large pipe fell out of control Inpex and Maersk cannot drill for more gas at Ichthys until they convince the regulator that there will be no potentially fatal incidents.
