An expert, independent of government and industry, explains how prolonged industrial activity on the Burrup Peninsula in WA endangers an Australian marvel.
Australia's oil and gas industry has lost the fight not to bear the full cost of cleaning up after an oil vessel in the Timor Sea with a bankrupt owner.
Bass Strait partners ExxonMobil and BHP must plug 180 wells, dismantle ten platforms and tackle life-threatening corrosion after intervention by offshore safety regulator NOPSEMA.
For every dollar Woodside saved in 2015 selling the Northern Endeavour, the oil and gas industry may have to pay back threefold after the Federal Government moved to protect ordinary taxpayers from the cost of decommissioning the vessel and oil field.
Santos and ENI are looking for solutions for CO2 and removing old facilities in the waters north of Darwin. Time will tell if the problems are solved or just delayed.
Regulator NOPSEMA has wrested control of the schedule for cleaning up Australia's offshore oil and gas fields from tight-fisted operators in a move that may result in an offshore jobs boom later this decade.
Investors in Australia's offshore oil and gas industry will find it harder to avoid paying to clean up the assets they profited from under draft legislation released today.
Much of the $52 billion cost to decommission Australia's offshore oil and gas infrastructure will fall on the Federal Government via the tax system and work has started to boost industry collaboration and find cost savings.
Woodside's own lack of maintenance means it cannot dispose of an 83m-long structure onshore as planned and will instead sink it to be an artificial reef near the Ningaloo Marine Park
Resources Minister Keith Pitt warned ExxonMobil ceo Darren Woods he would tighten rules for selling offshore oil and gas assets and shortly after the US major canned its Bass Strait exit.
ENI's plan to sell out of Australia and leave offshore decommissioning liabilities to others has struck trouble from regulator NOPSEMA and new Government policy proposals.
The Government will spend $130 million to look after the Northern Endeavour in 2021 and has the oil and gas industry in its sights for the total bill of more than half a billion dollars.
The Northern Endeavour saga gets murkier: court battles, Cabinet confidentiality, unspecified environmental problems and maybe a hefty bill for big oil and gas.
