New survey suggests Australian oil and gas still going strong

A new survey has suggested that reports of the death of the Australian oil and gas industry appear to have been greatly exaggerated, especially on the back of the recent string of major oil and gas discoveries in the country.

The survey, undertaken on behalf of the organisers of Australia’s largest oil and gas event - the Australasian Oil & Gas Exhibition and Conference (AOG) - found that while the local oil and gas industry may be sliding off its record breaking peak of construction expenditure there was a still a significant amount of activity forecast to keep driving the industry ahead for many years to come.

A number of the surveyed group of industry insiders also suggested that the recent South Phoenix-1 and Waitsia oil and gas discoveries in Western Australia may be “game changing” events that could lead to a next generation oil and gas “boom” in this country.

The Atwood Eagle drilled the exciting Phoenix South-1 discovery well.

The targeted survey of local industry specialists was undertaken on behalf of Diversified as part of marketing for AOG 2015.

In response to a question related to the current status of the Australian oil and gas sector, a clear majority of the participants responded strongly that they did not believe the Australian oil and gas “boom” was over.

Many of those surveyed suggested that while the level of “greenfield” construction related to the winding down of a number of multi-billion dollar LNG projects, there is a whole new range of “brownfield” opportunities becoming available, particularly in the areas of inspection, repair and maintenance and life extension services.

There was also a good deal of confidence from the participants suggesting Australia will benefit from the shale oil and gas potential that is forecast to be world class in size, but is virtually unexplored at this stage.

Some of the respondents also suggested that while there continues to be negatives related to the high cost of local oil and gas developments, the country was still well placed to cash in on a second wave of LNG developments with Australia seen to have a number of advantages over other potential producers including:

• A proven track record as a reliable supplier to international markets over many years;
• Strong political stability;
• World-class gas prospectivity for both conventional and unconventional reserves.

“We elected to undertake this survey at this time as we believe it is important that even after 30 years, AOG remains relevant and in touch with what is going on in our industry,” commented Bill Hare, AOG Event Director at Diversified Communications.

Adapted from press release by Katie Woodward

Read the article online at: https://www.oilfieldtechnology.com/exploration/06102014/australian-oil-and-gas-industry-could-expect-boom-1568/