DNV's localised survey and accompanying report, Short-term agility, long-term resilience, which drew on 723 senior sector players, revealed Australians are more confident than their global peers that the worst of the downturn is over.

 

Some 45% of Australian executives expressed confidence compared to 27% among their peers., according to the report released today, which was a localised version of the global onen issued on January 26. 

 

When asked to predict the price of oil at the end of 2017, Australian respondents forecast an average of $US63 per barrel, significantly higher than the global average of $57.8/bbl, and the average from Asia Pacific respondents with of $60/bbl.   

 

DNV's Perth-based regional manager, Australia, NZ and PNG Richard Palmer told Energy News that Australia had weathered low oil prices "pretty well", having endured the same significant cost-cutting as its global competitors.

 

"There's optimism in Australia as the projects come online, that there is tangible successes being seen - Gorgon is moving forward, Prelude is coming, Wheatstone is on its way, Woodside is investing … people see this these things as a positive sign locally," he said.

 

With the remoteness of the Australian market they look for local indicators, and those indicators are generally positive, he added.

 

Woodside (60%) and its partner Mitsui sanctioned the Greater Enfield 60km off Exmouth, Western Australia last June; while the company also recently joined Melbourne junior FAR and UK concern Cairn Energy in Senegal.

 

The Perth oiler is also pursuing the Atlantic Margin offshore Ireland and has had exploration success in Myanmar, and closer to come Palmer said that "Browse isn't dead".

 

"With companies like Woodside making those investment people are seeing positives," he said.

 

"I found it quite interesting that from about August last year people stopped talking about oil falling but going down," Palmer said.

 

"When oil comes back again after dropping for a bit, people don't talk about it going backward, they only talk about it going forward."

 

Yet the cost-cutting also makes it harder to sanction big projects, as Woodside CEO Peter Coleman told LNG18 last year in Perth.

 

Confidence in the oil and gas industry's long-term viability remains clear, with one survey participant saying oil and gas is far too important to burn.

 

They said "if we hadn't discovered it we should've invented it", as the carbon taken out of oil and gas can be used in a range of things from plastics to pharmaceuticals.

 

 

In the low oil price environment, 24% of respondent are actively looking for new merger and acquisition opportunities in gas, the main game in Australia.

 

The massive LNG build-out that is being completed is part of the optimism in Australia, Palmer said.

 

"These gas plants are there, these investments have been made, so now we need to develop gas to feed them," Palmer said, summing up the attitude of many in Australia's oil patch.

 

"People are looking to feed the big gas plants in DLNG, the North West Shelf, Gorgon, Wheatstone and those on the east coast."

 

Though confidence in the oil and gas sector overall has risen from 19% to 30% in the last year, Australian respondents are less buoyant about the overall prospects for their own organisations, with a decline from 48% to 38%. 

 

Survey participants believe cost cutting will this year be prioritised around operating spending (41%), workforce reduction (34%) and organisational restructuring (34%), with less focus on capital expenditure reductions - down from 37% to 27% in the last year.  

 

Alarmingly, 30% of local respondents believe that cost-cutting is negatively affecting the health and safety risk (compared to only 19% globally).

 

Over half (52%) said that the cost pressures were driving more industry collaboration, a positive effect of recent market challenges. 

 

Efforts to improve standardisation are also increasing as this helps remove remaining complexities, with 61% of respondents saying their organisation will seek greater standardisation of tools and processes in 2017, a 16% increase from 2016.