Regulator move after no cash for wages at WA oil platform

Triangle Energy, the majority owner of the Cliff Head oil platform, has refused to pay wages to the workers who keep the facility safe, prompting the offshore safety regulator to act.

The move by regulator NOPSEMA comes after Triangle's minor partner, Pilot Energy, entered voluntary administration on Tuesday.

Before the market opened on Thursday, Triangle requested that the trading in its shares be suspended until it better understood the impact of Pilot's troubles. Triangle has loaned Pilot money and had agreed to sell its 79 per cent of Cliff Head to Pilot.

Cliff Head, 300km north of Perth, produced oil from 2006 to 2024, and Pilot had hoped to reuse the facility for carbon storage.

On Thursday, NOPSEMA directed Triangle subsidiaries to ensure there were sufficient personnel and organisational capability to keep the platform, eight wells and pipelines from posing a threat to worker safety or the environment.

Shortly after taking control of Pilot on Tuesday, its administrators requested that Triangle fund the wages for the workers who operate Cliff Head, but Triangle "declined this request", according to the NOPSEMA direction.

"The appointment of voluntary administrators introduces immediate uncertainty about the continued availability of personnel, funding, contracts and services necessary to maintain the facilities and wells in a safe condition," NOPSEMA said.
"There is a risk that cost-reduction or restructuring decisions could result in the loss of critical personnel."

NOPSEMA's directions included maintaining all employment and service contracts necessary to keep Cliff Head in a safe condition.

Boiling Cold asked Triangle why it refused to contribute to the wages. No response has been received.

At the end of March, Triangle had $4.8 million in cash.

Since then, it has spun off its most valuable asset - exploration acreage in the Philippines - into a separate ASX-listed company, Tetragon Energy.

At the close of trading on Thursday, Triangle was worth $2.2 million and Tetragon $9.9 million.

Triangle has no responsibility for WA assets

NOPSEMA's direction does not apply to pipelines within 5.5 km of the coast or to the Arrowmith onshore plant, which used to process oil from Cliff Head, both of which are within state jurisdiction.

Both companies owned these assets until March 2025, when Triangle supplied Pilot with $5.6 million of funding to purchase its share, with the loan to be repaid in September 2026.

The effect of the transaction to date is that while Triangle has not received any cash for the onshore assets, it no longer has any exposure to their decommissioning costs.

Pilot Energy also agreed to cover all operating expenses for the offshore assets it owned only 21 per cent of, despite having no funding or regulatory approval to complete the purchase.

The deal between the two companies does not affect their individual financial liability under Australian law for all costs associated with the offshore project.

A similar sale was not possible for the offshore assets in Commonwealth waters - the platform, wells, and portions of the pipelines - as it would require approval from the National Offshore Petroleum Titles Administrator (NOPTA).

One of NOPTA's requirements is that a purchaser of an interest in an offshore title have sufficient financial capability to develop the resource safely.

However, Pilot's accounts published in June 2025 recorded a "material uncertainty which may cast significant doubt as to whether the Group will continue as a going concern."

The inability or unwillingness of Cliff Head's owners to meet the immediate wage bill does not auger well for their chances of paying the estimated $200 million decommissioning cost of the asset.

On Wednesday, Federal Resources Minister Madeleine King said she would have "no hesitation” in applying a levy on offshore oil and gas production to pay the bill, as has been done for the approximately $1 billion clean-up of the Northern Endeavour oil vessel in the Timor Sea.