Page 7 - AsiaElec Week 18

AsiaElec COMMENTARY AsiaElec
information about hydraulic fracturing was from overseas studies in quite different shale gas formations.”
Australian Minister for Resources Keith Pitt said the new report should pave the way for fur- ther investment in gas exploration and develop- ment across Australia.
“It found that best practice fracking opera- tions that have been adopted in the Basin had little to no environmental impact, even water produced directly from the wells showed no chemical residues above normal background levels within 40 days of the fracking operation takingplace,”hesaid.
“It dispels the misinformation anti-gas activ- ists have been spreading about the CSG indus- try, which is poised to deliver thousands of new jobs and millions of dollars in new revenue.”
The continued potential for investment in the sector was highlighted by the Arrow joint venture’s decision on April 17 to green light the first phase of the Surat gas project.
The project aims to produce up to 90bn cubic feet (2.5bn cubic metres) per year of CBM, with the gas flowing to the Royal Dutch Shell-led QGC, which supplies both the domestic and international markets.
QGC operates an 8.5mn tonne per year (tpy) LNG terminal on Curtis Island, near Gladstone, as well as gas production and processing facili- ties in the Surat Basin.
The Surat gas project is anticipated to
produce around 5 trillion cubic feet (142 bcm) of gas over its lifetime.
What next
ExxonMobil, Woodside Petroleum and Santos have already announced plans to scale back upstream investment and defer projects in order to ensure they are strong enough to ride out the current industry downturn.
A few rungs below them and Beach Energy has said it will cut back its spending in financial year 2020-2021. In the immediate run up to the most pronounced oil price crash in early March, Equinorsaiditwouldnotproceedwithitsdeep- water drilling plans in the Great Australian Bight. The Norwegian company said lower oil prices had rendered the project “not commer- cially competitive”.
Companies looking to invest in new Austral- ian projects could well be the exception rather than the rule in the year ahead, as budget ration- alisation and greater operational efficiencies become corporate buzzwords.
In such an environment, Santos’ desire to invest and CSIRO’s compelling new research suggest that the odds of Narrabri receiving gov- ernment approval in the near future are better than fair.
As for the rest of the sector, projects not already in the final stages of planning are unlikely to be pursued until business conditions do improve.™
Week 18 05•May•2020 w w w . N E W S B A S E . c o m P7