Page 18 - AsianOil Week 19

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NEWS IN BRIEF
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Government’s recent Ministerial reshuffle and the appointment of Cameron Dick as Treasurer and Kate Jones as State Development Minister.
The new appointments reflect the State Government’s priority on rebuilding the Queensland economy amid the containment of the COVID-19 pandemic.
APPEA Queensland Director Georgy Mayo said the reshuffle will help to support the Government’s recognition of the critical role the oil and gas industry can play.
“Queensland’s natural gas industry is a backbone of the local economy, and as we have shown over the past decade, we’re here for the long-term to deliver growth, jobs and natural gas to local customers, including the manufacturing industry,” Ms Mayo said.
The Australian oil and gas industry
has invested more than $70 billion into Queensland’s economy due to the rapid development of the state’s natural gas and LNG industries, and today nearly 30 per cent of Australia’s LNG production capacity is located in QLD.
“This investment has delivered $8.2 billion in gross regional product to the state economy in 2017-2018,” Ms Mayo said.
The industry has also spent around $50 billion on goods and services from local community contributions and payments to local government as well as royalties, stamp duty and tax, a recent Lawrence Consulting report found.
APPEA, May 11, 2020
New oil and gas investment needs policy stability
Australia’s upstream oil and gas industry needs long-term regulatory stability to create attractive investment opportunities for the sector and maintain industry’s strong economic contribution, according to new research commissioned by APPEA.
A report, undertaken by energy research and consultancy Wood Mackenzie, highlighted the industry’s success from 2009 to 2012 was predicated on relatively few regulatory and fiscal changes in the previous decade, which provided a strong foundation for a wave of unprecedented investment.
The scale of this investment, including
the establishment of our country’s LNG projects, worth approximately $350 billion, has delivered direct and indirect economic benefits to the Australian economy, the Australia Oil & Gas Industry Outlook Report found.
In the immediate term, the benefit
has come from direct spending into local communities while the full taxation benefits to be accrued in the latter half of this decade.
Wood Mackenzie Vice President Energy Consulting, Asia Pacific Chris Graham said: “Our analysis found the stability of the regulatory and fiscal environment in the years prior to investment was key to oil and gas majors with strong balance sheets and development capability making long-term commitments to the country.
“However, against the backdrop of a challenging macroeconomic environment and lower commodity prices, Australian fiscal and regulatory volatility has increased at a time when continued stability would be highly beneficial.”
While focused on the oil and gas industry, the findings also show regulatory instability, intervention and uncertainty, coupled with Australia being considered to be a high-cost destination for business, has reduced the investment appetite, may also be relevant for many other industries.
As Australia shifts from the current COVID-19 pandemic and its immediate economic impacts, a stable regulatory and fiscal environment is crucial for recovery.
APPEA Chief Executive Andrew McConville said: “For decades, our industry has contributed to our national economic
growth, and we are delivering around two per cent of Australia’s GDP.
“Australia has an opportunity to secure the next wave of investment which has the potential to deliver upwards of $50 billion in capital expenditure, and secure up to 6,300 jobs across the life of a project and an estimated $80 billion in taxation receipts. APPEA, May 8, 2020
Cooper updates on Orbost gas plant commissioning
Cooper Energy provides the following update on the commissioning of the Orbost Gas Processing Plant and Sole gas field production and sales. The gas plant is managed by APA Group.
The gas plant is in the final phase of commissioning to process gas from Sole for supply to customers in south-east Australia. Completion of plant commissioning, through the performance of a plant production test, will enable commencement of the field’s term supply contracts, and commencement of processing tariff payments by Cooper Energy to APA Group.
Commissioning of the gas plant is ongoing. The plant has proven its capability to produce sales specification gas from the Sole raw gas stream with total delivery to the Eastern Gas Pipeline of 0.74 petajoules (PJ) from 36 days’ production. This gas
has been sold at spot prices net of a gas transmission cost.
Sales gas has been sourced from both of the Sole-3 and Sole-4 production wells. Reservoir and well performance and raw gas specification have been consistent with expectations.
Daily sales gas production rates have ranged between 20 to 25 terajoules
(TJ) for most of the past 14 days. This represents an increase of more than 139% to Cooper Energy’s net daily production
of approximately 14 TJ/day from its other gas operation, Casino Henry, for the March quarter 2020.
However, rates achieved are yet to meet the 68 TJ/day required by the plant production test. Cooper Energy, APA and its technology partner are working collaboratively to identify and resolve issues to complete commissioning.
This will include a shut-down of the plant for approximately 9 days to inspect, conduct maintenance and complete minor modifications within the sulphur recovery unit. Methodical investigation and analysis of other aspects of the plant performance is ongoing. The shut-down is expected to commence in the coming days.
COOPER ENERGY, May 11, 2020
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Week 19 14•May•2020