Page 11 - AsianOil Week 49

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Australian Federal Resources Minister Matt Canavan has cited the success of WA’s gas reserve policy.
so we have a vibrant manufacturing and process- ing sector in rural and regional areas”.
He said: “[Western Australia] has shown that a successful LNG export industry can sur- vive and thrive with a gas reservation policy. I will ensure that gas is available and affordable for industry on the east coast as well and will work with states and the Northern Territory and industry to implement a national gas res- ervation scheme.”
WA’s gas reserve policy ringfences 15% of production from export projects for the local market and has been in place for many years.
EnergyQuest said short-term east coast gas prices averaged AUD8.23 ($5.65) per gigajoule in the quarter, down 7.8% year on year and 13.1% quarter on quarter.
Canavan also took the opportunity to criti- cise the local government in Victoria, which has banned all onshore exploration in the state.
“The Andrews government seems intent on shutting down industries, from vegetable processors to aluminium smelters operating in regional areas of Victoria while they pander to green activists and Greens in inner city Mel- bourne,” said Canavan.™
Karoon Energy scales back Australian operations to focus on South America
PROJECTS & COMPANIES
THE chairman of Australia’s Karoon Energy said last week that his company was taking steps to shift its focus to development projects in South America.
Speaking at the annual general meeting (AGM) of shareholders, Bruce Phillips, said Karoon Energy was scaling back its involve- ment in Australia’s offshore zone in order to concentrate on its assets in Peru and Brazil. The company has already relinquished its permit for WA-314-P, a licence area offshore Western Aus- tralia, in response to its failure to find a suitable partner for a farm-in deal, he said.
Additionally, he noted, it has started the process of relinquishing its permit for EPP46, a block that lies offshore South Australia in the Great Australian Bight region. (Karoon Energy had been due to drill a well at EPP46 by October 2021, but relinquishment would relieve it of this obligation.)
Phillips also stated that Karoon Energy had reduced staff levels in Australia while expanding its operations in Peru and Brazil, where its pros- pects are viewed as very favourable. It is using the proceeds of a recent securities issue to fund these
activities, he said.
In Peru, the Australian company has a 40%
stake in Block Z-38, a licence area in the off- shore Tumbes Basin. It serves as the operator of the block, which is home to the Marina pros- pect. Karoon Energy and its partners recently arranged to use the Stena Forth, a dynamic posi- tioning drillship, to sink a wildcat well at Marina in the first quarter of 2020. The prospect may hold as much as 256mn barrels of crude oil.
The company also has a 100% stake in Area 73, a technical evaluation licence that lies to the south of Marina. If it makes a discovery at the Marina-1 wildcat well, it will be able to de-risk Area 73, as well as other sections of Block Z-38.
In Brazil, Karoon Energy has 100% stakes in three offshore fields: Baúna, Goiá and Neon, all of which lie within the southern Santos Basin. It has encountered significant oil shows during test drilling at Goiá and Neon and is already extracting about 20,000 barrels per day (bpd) of crude from Baúna. It is using a floating production, storage and off-loading (FPSO) vessel known as the Cidade de Itajai for development work at Baúna.™
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