Burrup or Onslow site for Pluto plant
Woodside will build a billion-dollar LNG processing plant as part of its development of the massive Pluto gas field. The company said its prefered site was the Burrup Peninsula, near Karratha, Western Australia but Onslow was still an option.
The Pluto discovery, made less than a year ago, is expected to produce between five and seven million tonnes of liquified natural gas a year for 15 years.
Woodside received backing from both the state and federal governments to fast-track the development and already has a buyer for the LNG - Tokyo Gas, which has taken 5% equity in the project. Woodside holds the remainder.
The proposed site for the processing plant must receive environmental approval from the state government before construction can begin.
Casino now in play, more Victorian gas projects to follow
Victorian customers last week received first gas from the $A200 million Casino gas project in VIC/P44.
The Casino gas field is in about 70m of water, 30km offshore from Port Campbell, western Victoria. The project is operated by Santos. The other partners are Australian Worldwide Exploration and Mitsui subsidiaries.
The TRUenergy Iona Gas Plant will process all the gas from the field and provide about 120 terajoules of gas per day or enough natural gas to supply nearly a million homes.
Under the initial 12-year contract, up to 420 petajoules of gas will be transported from the subsea wellheads through a sea-floor pipeline that comes ashore via a directionally-drilled underground shore crossing, for processing at the Iona gas plant.
Other major Victoria gas projects that have started or are due to start in the next few years include: Minerva, BassGas, the Otway Gas Project (Thylacine/Geographe), Kipper, Sole and Longtom.
New WA exploration blocks with LNG potential released
Eight new northwest offshore permits were awarded Australia’s 2005 Offshore Acreage Release.
In the Browse Basin, Shell was awarded permit WA-371-P, which is adjacent to Santos and Inpex acreage.
The Gorgon partners – Chevron, Shell and Mobil – won permit WA-374P in the Carnarvon Basin’s Central Exmouth Plateau about 100km north of Barrow Island.
Also in the Central Exmouth Plateau, permits WA-369-P and WA-370-P were awarded to a joint venture comprising Woodside Energy, Total E&P Australia and Japan Australia LNG.
In the Carnarvon Basin’s Barrow Sub-basin, permits WA-372-P and WA-373P were awarded to US-based Holloman Corporation.
Two permits were issued for the Bonaparte Basin, adjacent to significant hydrocarbon discoveries, to Goldsborough Energy, a subsidiary of private Australian company Exoil Limited owned by Melbourne entrepreneur Geoffrey Albers. Albers-linked companies already had seven Bonaparte Basin blocks, plus another four in the outer Browse Basin.
Arrow targets Indian market
Queensland coal seam methane player Arrow Energy says its new alliance with Indian energy giant GAIL will open up new opportunities in Australia and India for both companies.
GAIL will help to fund projects in Australia, investing in exploration, appraisal and development, and is likely to second staff to help Arrow, which will in turn train these workers in skills that can be taken back to India for future GAIL-Arrow joint ventures, according to Davies.
The partners are also hoping to get some CSM projects underway in India, a huge market with higher gas prices than Australia where success could greatly boost Arrow's market cap.
GAIL is one of the giants in Indian energy but it has no expertise in CSM and it failed to win blocks in India's last CSM licensing round.
A GAIL-Arrow joint venture is very likely to bid for CSM blocks in the next round, which will close in July with blocks to be awarded in September.
