WA Premier Roger Cook's core "Made in WA" election policy will be tested by his use of local content provisions to keep Chevron's WA engineers working in WA.
Northern Oil and Gas Australia bought the Northern Endeavour floating oil production vessel in the Timor Sea from Woodside in 2016 and went into liquidation in early 2020.
The Federal Government is now decommissioning the project, financed by a levy on offshore oil and gas production.
The Northern Endeavor mess started with Woodside paying to rid itself of a rusty ageing asset, ended with a $362 million liability for the Government and in between was a regulatory shambles.
North Sea expert recommends changes to stop a repeat of Woodside escaping a $360 million cleanup bill by paying a tiny inexperienced company to take an old rusty asset.
While the idle Northern Endeavour costs $4 million a month, Government and industry are still talking about how to keep the clean-up bill below a possible $230 million.
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.
A debt of $165 million and unpaid employees can be added to a massive decommissioning liability as the cost of Northern Endeavour's short life after Woodside.
Offshore oil and gas operators that continually delay costly decommissioning will now be watched more closely by offshore safety and environment regulator NOPSEMA.
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 liquidator of Northern Oil and Gas Australia has recommended liquidation, which will leave the Federal Government responsibility for decommissioning its oil vessel.
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.
