Off-the-charts marine heat severely damages Ningaloo and other pristine coral reefs
Luck has run out for WA's coral reefs, with most under twice the level of heat stress that can kill coral. Climate change is the cause.
Adelaide-based Santos owns the Varanus Island and Devil Creek domestic gas projects in the North West and is developing the Dorado oil field off WA and the Barossa LNG project into Darwin.
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.
Santos' Reindeer gas field will fill with water sooner than expected and the production loss will add to concerns about the supply of gas to WA this decade.
A year after Inpex rejected carbon capture and storage at Ichthys LNG as unaffordable it is an essential element in its new drive to slash emissions by 2030.
Chevron, Santos and Kerry Stokes' BCI Minerals are battling in court over responsibility for gas pipelines supplying 40 per cent of the WA market that traverse the $780 million Mardie salt project.
South Korea, Japan and China's tightened climate goals will crunch Australian thermal coal, make LNG investments harder and possibly kill Santos' Barossa LNG project.
Japan's JERA, the major buyer of Australian LNG, has embraced zero emissions by 2050 in another signal that the clock is ticking on this major export.
Prospects for LNG are under a shadow if Paris Agreement emissions cuts are pursued, according to the IEA, leaving Woodside and Santos in a very dark place.
Barossa would produce Australia's dirtiest LNG and if other companies will not back it Santos has a very expensive problem.
Santos is now the biggest supplier of gas to WA and the future may depend on the Perth Basin after the State's almost four decades of reliance on Australia's first LNG plant.
Woodside's Scarborough and Santos' Barossa LNG projects unlikely to happen this year as planned according to oil and gas experts Wood Mackenzie.
Concerns about potential oil leaks caused the safety regulator to bar workers from an area of the MODEC Venture 11 floating production facility off WA for over a week.
Macquarie and Brookfield will have to sell exploration potential in their $4 billion float of Quadrant Energy amid concern its domestic gas plants could run dry in as little as six years.
All the info and a bit of comment on WA energy and climate every Friday