Woodside sold the project to an insubstantial company to avoid a few hundred million in decommissioning costs: now it and its competitors will pay the price.
WA Premier Mark McGowan warned Alcoa to lift its game or face curtailed mining, but his successor Roger Cook slashed water supply protections after a possibly empty threat from the US miner.
Italian oil and gas company ENI owns the Blacktip gas project and has interests in Bayu Undan, Darwin LNG, the Evans Shoal gas field and the shuttered Woolybutt oil field.
BIT: ENI
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.
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.
An eight year wait for ENI's Woollybutt oil field to be decommissioned and poor maintenance have caused subsea kit to surface and pose a danger to vessels.
