Page 9 - AsianOil Week 38 2021

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APPEA defends merits of NT gas projects

POLICY AUSTRALIA’S upstream industry has been busy and storage (CCS) developments. He said: “Such
this week promoting the environmental benefits of technologies are expected to achieve considera-
the Northern Territory’s shale gas developments. ble scale in the next 10 years, generating jobs and
The Australian Petroleum Production and economic development for local communities.”
Exploration Association (APPEA) published on The same day that APPEA published its interview
September 22 an interview with former business with Satchwell, the industry body also highlighted the
advisor to the United Nations Economic and release of a “landmark” four-year environmental study
Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific, Ian that demonstrated that onshore gas development in
Satchwell, in which the analyst claimed develop- the Cooper Basin, the Isa Superbasin and the Beetaloo
ment of the Beetaloo Sub-basin would help Aus- could be managed safely.
tralia and the wider Asia-Pacific region make the “The scientific studies were carried out by
transition to a low-carbon future. some of Australia’s most respected science
“Beetaloo Basin gas, in addition to other institutions and technical experts, including
onshore and offshore gas, has a very important Australia’s national science agency CSIRO and
role to play in customers’ transition to lower-car- Geoscience Australia, with support from the
bon energy sources, whether those customers be Bureau of Meteorology and the Department
in Australia or in the Asian region,” Satchwell said. of Agriculture, Water and the Environment,”
The analyst added: “In thinking about greenhouse APPEA CEO Andrew McConville said.
gas [GHG] emissions from gas, we should consider He added: “The studies found that there were
full lifecycle emissions and what fuels gas is substitut- effective environmental safeguards available for
ing. For example, electricity generators in Australia all three basins. This is real world evidence that
and Asia can’t go from using a lot of coal-fired power once again underscores that gas resource devel-
to much greater renewables without gas – it’s what opment in Australia is safe.”
enables that energy transformation.” The Australian upstream is battling mounting
Satchwell also argued that the greater gas domestic opposition to onshore gas development,
production in the NT would create opportuni- with environmental campaigners launching a legal
ties for more commercial-scale carbon offsets, action in July against the federal government’s sup-
land-based sequestration, and carbon capture port for drilling in the Beetaloo.™

Strike completes pre-FEED at ammonia project

PROJECTS & AUSTRALIAN natural gas developer Strike pipeline from the Perth Basin. It will also include
COMPANIES Energy has completed a pre-front-end engi- a 10-MW green hydrogen electrolyser.
neering and design (pre-FEED) study on its pro- In parallel with the pre-FEED study, Strike
posed ammonia and urea manufacturing facility said it had progressed additional engineering
in Western Australia. by Technip Energies to incorporate Haldor
Strike said on September 20 that interna- Topsoe’s SynCORTM Autothermal Reforming
tional oil and gas services provider Technip (ATR) technology for ammonia production.
Energies’ seven-month plant study had resulted The company estimates that the adoption of
in a 6% reduction in capital estimates compared this technology will reduce the plant’s gas feed-
with feasibility study estimates from January. stock requirements by around 7% from 86 TJ
The project is now estimated to cost $1.64bn (2.24mn cubic metres) per day to 80 TJ (2.08
– which includes the engineering, procurement mcm) per day. Moreover, only 552 PJ (14.38bn
and construction (EPC) of the Haber plant deliv- cubic metres) of feedstock gas is now required to
ered on site in Narngulu – down from the $1.8bn underwrite Haber’s first 20 years of operations.
estimate delivered by TechnipFMC. Strike said this week that it would progress
The 1.4mn tonne per year (tpy) facility – FEED early work scopes, which will include
dubbed Project Haber – will use gas supplied geotechnical and environmental surveys, impact
from the company’s onshore Greater Erregulla assessments and various other agreements and
project, which is being developed in two phases. studies on the water supply, logistics, port, con-
The first stage focuses on the West Erregulla struction camp and raw gas pipeline.
field, with development of the South Erregulla The developer expects to conclude the major-
acreage following. ity of these activities prior to drilling South
Project Haber will include an 800,000 tpy Erregulla-1 (SE-1) in the fourth quarter of this
ammonia train, 300,000 tpy of onsite urea stor- year. It noted that success at SE-1 would lead the
age, power, utilities and stream generation, company to launch the FEED process at Haber,
railway sidings for transport and a 120-km gas which is anticipated to last less than a year.™

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