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.
The Northern Endeavour saga gets murkier: court battles, Cabinet confidentiality, unspecified environmental problems and maybe a hefty bill for big oil and gas.
Chevron has another pressure vessel to worry about, this time on the Wheatstone platform, after Gorgon LNG production was slashed this year to fix faulty welds.
Chevron slashes more than $US20 billion off its five-year spend due to lower demand and prices for fossil fuels but allocates just 2% of its 2022 budget to the energy transition.
Resources Minister Keith Pitt plans to stop big oil companies passing on decommissioning liabilities and make them contribute to the Northern Endeavour decommissioning bill.
Al Williams will leave Australia to manage Chevron's global reputation after handling numerous crises in his three years in charge of the Gorgon and Wheatstone LNG projects.
Gorgon LNG has emitted 7 million tonnes of climate-warming CO2 more than permitted but Chevron is unlikely to suffer at the hands of lax Australian governments.
Chevron, Santos and Kerry Stokes' BCI Minerals are battling in court over responsibility for gas pipelines supplying 40 per cent of the WA market that traverse the $780 million Mardie salt project.
Jadestone Energy is now two wells down at its Montara field in the Timor Sea where 75% of its production comes from but says it has the cash to work on both Montara and Stag in 2021.
Tomorrow Peter Coleman must convince investment analysts that Woodside has a credible growth plan with Scarborough LNG, and that will take more than spin about a few approvals.
