After Chevron announced it was pulling out late last Thursday, South Australian industry pleaded with Statoil, Murphy Oil and Santos, the last players standing after BP announced last October it would not continue with GAB exploration, prioritising frontier areas in west Africa and Canada.

 

While Santos is yet to respond to Energy News, Statoil has affirmed it was not going anywhere, saying it remains committed to fulfilling its obligations in the GAB, and is working closely with relevant authorities and stakeholders to develop its plans.

 

"We are continuing to develop our plans to meet our commitment to the federal government to drill one well," a company spokesman told Energy News. 

 

"We are aiming to start our project at the end of 2018 or at the start of 2019, although our commitment is not due until October 2019. We will take all the time necessary to ensure safe operations."

 

Chevron Australia managing director Nigel Hearne said the California-headquartered supermajor was confident that the Bight could be developed safely and responsibly, and would even help the remaining stakeholders - ie Santos, Murphy and Statoil - to "help realise its potential".

 

With Chevron focusing its Australian attention more on exploring for more gas in the Carnarvon Basin to provide backfill for the North West Shelf to keep it competitive beyond 2023 and start up its carbon capture and storage project at the Gorgon site in Western Australia, Statoil pointed out the differing priorities of the global heavyweights.

 

"It is important to highlight that different companies have different investment strategies and priorities," the Statoil spokesman said. 

 

"We note Chevron's statement about the potential in the Bight and agree that the Bight can be developed safely and responsibly."

 

Statoil mapped out its strategy in June that it would focus on "discovering and developing frontier and deepwater areas" and unlocking low-recovery reservoirs, along with optimising production from existing and near-field resources, low-carbon solutions for oil and gas and developing renewable energy opportunities.

 

The company is going on the front foot with new technologies to better, safer and faster, having collaborated with research institutions for more than a decade on developing automated drilling technology that was recently applied for the first time on a mobile rig in the company's Barents Sea exploration acreage.

 

Statoil believes automated drilling has the potential to drill wells up to 15-20% faster by 2020.