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.
If Western Gas' Equus LNG project does not take off in these tough times neither the small company nor regulator NOPTA have an answer to how making safe the wells is paid for.
WA will be coal-powered for sometime and Synergy is working to ensure its Collie power stations can cope with the new world of intermittent renewable energy.
Hundreds of 7000-year-old Aboriginal artefacts found off the Pilbara coast highlight a new issue for oil and gas to maintain its social license, with Woodside's Scarborough project at the forefront.
No deal with Alcoa has cost Adelaide Brighton 31% of its value and threatened its WA lime business that is warring with its neighbours in suburban Perth.
Shell has followed BP in thinking its oil and gas assets are now worth much less in a post-COVID more climate-aware world and Prelude LNG is a big contributor to the value destruction.
Delays in offshore oil and gas maintenance after COVID-19 workforce cuts worries safety regulator NOPSEMA and unions, who have pointed to Inpex's Ichthys LNG project as a concern.
Santos is now the biggest supplier of gas to WA and the future may depend on the Perth Basin after the State's almost four decades of reliance on Australia's first LNG plant.
Peter Coleman's challenges: an ageing plant, high cost gas, partner churn and global forces making the LNG game tougher than anyone envisaged a few years ago.
If Woodside's argument that a reef's environmental benefit outweighs 400 tonnes of plastic in the ocean wins over NOPSEMA then leaving everything on the seabed could become the default option for Australia's oil and gas players.
As wind and solar displaces coal the South West of WA will have ample generation, according to a 10-year look ahead, with the growth of electric vehicles being the big unknown.
