Cash-poor Kimberley fracker Black Mountain expects WA decision soon
The US-owned company is seeking funds from investors to stay a going concern while it awaits state and Federal approval.
The Woodside-operated North West Shelf project near Karratha exported Australia's first LNG cargo in 1989 and now has four gas export trains and a domestic gas plant. In 2024 and 2025, respectively, the WA and Federal governments approved its operation until 2070.
Australia's most gas-dependent state can be well supplied for decades without drilling near Scott Reef or fracking the Kimberley, according to an exclusive analysis by Boiling Cold.
Santos' Varanus Island is not producing gas. Nor are the shuttered North West Shelf and Wheatstone plants.
As Asia scrambles for gas, another Australian gas export plant is out of action, and the WA Government monitors the situation to ensure sufficient fuel for the state.
An expert, independent of government and industry, explains how prolonged industrial activity on the Burrup Peninsula in WA endangers an Australian marvel.
Federal environment minister Murray Watt did not have to consider climate impacts when making his decision.
Whether Australia's oldest gas export plant - the North West Shelf - can operate until 2070 has become a political hot potato.
Any further delay would enrage the oil and gas industry, but process shortcuts could lead to any approval being challenged in court.
Woodside will buy Chevron's one-sixth stake in the North West Shelf project and relinquish its stake in the Wheatstone LNG project to the US major.
If Woodside absorbs BHP's oil & gas assets new laws ensure the massive decommissioning liability falls to one of the companies, not the Australian taxpayer, unlike the Northern Endeavour.
Buying BHP’s Australian oil and gas assets could allow Woodside to escape its lost decade, but its shareholders and Australian taxpayers should count their fingers after the handshake.
Woodside has found corrosion during a shutdown of the North West Shelf's LNG Train 4 that potentially is a serious concern. It is understood Woodside is now inspecting other trains for the problem.
Woodside must check if corrosion on fourteen 24-tonne caissons under an offshore platform could cause them to fall onto subsea pipelines with possibly catastrophic results.
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