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.
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.
The first bill of $10 million bill is due for the failed Northern Endeavour as it is revealed that Woodside's sale of the vessel four years ago required no government approval.
If the Federal Government had been alert the financial failure of the Northern Endeavourur would not have been a surprise. Now Canberra has a huge bill for its omission.
The owner of an oil vessel in the Timor Sea falling into liquidation may make the Federal Government very cautious about who ExxonMobil can sell its Bass Strait assets to.
