Of the four countries in the Oceania region, Australia is the only one expected to add oil and gas production in 2020 compared to the previous year.
According to leading data and analytics company GlobalData, the country comprises all Final Investment Decisions (FIDs) for the year ahead and 71% of the project starts. With over half the FIDs in 2020 relating to liquefied natural gas (LNG) projects, Australia looks set to retain its position as the top exporter of LNG; 2019 was the first year the country’s sustained annual exports of liquefied gas surpassed Qatar’s.
Joseph Wisdom, Upstream Oil & Gas Analyst at GlobalData, comments: “Of particular note regarding the upcoming LNG FIDs are Scarborough and Barossa, which together are expected to recover around 10 trillion cubic feet (tcf) of gas. However, there are smaller scale projects also looking to capitalize on the country’s LNG situation. Equus would be the second FLNG project in the country, looking to take advantage of stranded gas assets in the area.”
In Oceania, some of the key project starts for 2020 include Blackwatch, Haselgrove and Sole, all in Australia, and Maui Redevelopment and Supplejack in New Zealand.
In the Sole project, first gas was pushed back in Q4 2019 after delays in completing the Orbost gas plant in Victoria, and again after bushfires threatened the plant. Recoverable reserves are an estimated 232 billion cubic feet (bcf). Development involves a single vertical offshore well connected via pipelines to the Orbost Gas Plant.
As for FIDs, key projects that are targeting FIDs in 2020 in Oceania include Scarborough, Barossa, Equus and Crux, all in Australia.
