Oil explorer 88 Energy is set to get the drill bit spinning at its Hickory-1 well target on Alaska's North Slope after the state's Oil and Gas Conservation Commission handed the company an all-important Permit to Drill. The bore is now on track to be spudded early next month and is tipped by the enterprise to hold 647 million barrels of oil within six key reservoir targets.
ASX-listed 88 Energy has the drill bit spinning at its Merlin-1 exploration test site as the Alaskan oil hopeful looks to cash in on recent spectacular success by other oil explorers in the neighbourhood around its ground. 88 Energy spudded the Merlin-1 test well yesterday with 14 days of drilling now needed to reach the target reservoir in the oil-rich Nanushuk formation.
Santos has approved a $US235 million drilling program to extend the life of its Bayu-Undan field in the Timor Sea as a backfill to the Darwin LNG plant.
Electricity and gas retailer Origin Energy's fourth-quarter revenue from its share in the Australia Pacific LNG (APLNG) project has fallen 5.2 per cent.
Revised plans for two new towers at the old Emu Brewery site in Perth have officially been given the green light, following the City of Perth Local Development Assessment Panel's recommendation for approval by absolute majority last week.
Santos has already offloaded a portion of the Darwin LNG operation for $US390 million ($620 million) to South Korean SK E&S, in line with plans flagged during an acquisition of ConocoPhillips' northern Australian assets in October.
Woodside Petroleum has won a long-running contractual dispute with Melbourne-based explorer FAR over its purchase of a stake in the Sangomar oil project, off the coast of Senegal.
Developing the Dorado oil project will cost up to $2.2 billion, with front-end engineering and design to start next year, Santos revealed today, while forecasting $60 million of investment in Western Australia in 2020.
Modec International has been selected to build a floating production platform for the Barossa gas project, beating a consortium of Technip and Samsung, with gas to be piped to backfill the Darwin LNG plant.
Santos has struck a deal to pay up to $US1.44 billion ($A2.12 billion) for ConocoPhillips' interests in northern Australia, including its majority stake in the Darwin LNG plant and its interest in three major gas fields off the coast of Western Australia and the Northern Territory.
Allseas Group has been selected to build a 260 kilometre pipeline linking the Barossa gas field to the Darwin LNG facility, with ConocoPhillips likely to make a final investment decision on the project before March 2020.
SPECIAL REPORT: An alliance between two big unions will put pressure on oil and gas contractors at a time when many enterprise agreements reach their expiry and a big projects are set to get under way.
ConocoPhillips has awarded the first engineering contract for its Barossa offshore project to Technip Oceania for the supply of the subsea production system and associated installation support.
Shell has sold its interest in the Greater Sunrise offshore fields to Timor Gap, the national oil company of Timor-Leste, for US$300 million ($420 million).
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Front end engineering and design work for Woodside Petroleum's SNE oil development in Senegal has been awarded to Subsea Integration Alliance, with a final investment decision penciled in for mid-2019, after a long dispute among the project's partners.
The government of East Timor has struck a deal to buy a 30 per cent stake in the Woodside Petroleum-operated Sunrise gas project, as it continues pressing for development of an LNG plant on its own territory.
ConocoPhillips has set up a design competition between two engineering groups led by Technip Oceania and MODEC for the key facilities at its Barossa gas project in the Timor Sea while WorleyParsons subsidiary Intecsea has been awarded a separate contract for subsea infrastructure.
Plans to use the Barossa gas field in the Timor Sea as backfill for the Darwin LNG plant received a boost today, with the project getting a tick of approval from the National Offshore Petroleum Safety Authority.
The Woodside Petroleum-led Greater Sunrise gas project is a step closer to going ahead, with the federal government to ink an agreement with Timor Leste about revenue sharing, more than 40 years after it was originally discovered.
Origin Energy has flagged a second-half $1.2 billion hit to its full-year results, largely relating to an impairment in its Australia Pacific LNG interest.
Origin Energy has flagged a hit to profitability a day ahead of its half-year earnings, announcing it will take a $1.9 billion impairment charge against the value of some of its major assets, including the Australia Pacific LNG project and its Browse Basin gas fields.
Energy giant Woodside Petroleum says it has completed its $US440 million purchase of ConocoPhillips' stake in an oilfield off the coast of Senegal, despite leaving a contractual dispute with one of the project's partners unresolved.
Costs would need to come down a further 25 per cent to breakeven at around $US40 per barrel of oil for the Browse LNG project to proceed, according to Woodside Petroleum managing director Peter Coleman.
LNG 18 conference organising committee chair Grant King is positive about the industry's future, despite the low oil price environment and a predicted short-term oversupply, saying international demand growth for electricity will underpin a need for gas.
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The hotel industry expects up to a quarter of Perth's hotel rooms to be filled by delegates attending next month's LNG18 conference, though the number of people attending and the flow-on economic benefits to the state remain unclear.
Perth-based engineering and construction business Valmec has won a $24 million contract to provide its services to the Australia Pacific LNG project in Queensland for Origin Energy.
Perth-based Decmil Group has won a contract to provide temporary accommodation for ConocoPhillips workers at the Australia Pacific LNG facility on Curtis Island for an undisclosed sum.
Engineering firm Wood Group has continued its run of contract wins in the offshore oil and gas sector, with the latest contract being for Shell's Prelude floating LNG project.
Oil and gas producer Origin Energy has shipped the first cargo from its Australia Pacific liquefied natural gas (LNG) facility at Curtis Island in North Queensland.
