2014 Offshore Petroleum Exploration Acreage Release

2014 ◽  
Vol 54 (1) ◽  
pp. 377
Author(s):  
Tania Constable

The potential for natural gas to fuel economic growth around the world is tremendous. Australia has a pivotal role to play with our abundant natural gas reserves and record levels of investment in LNG production capacity. Australia is presently the world’s third-largest exporter of LNG, with an export capacity of 24.3 million tonnes per annum (mtpa) from three operational projects. Capacity will increase to around 90 mtpa by 2018, once the seven projects being constructed come online. The Australian Government is committed to ensuring the long-term growth of the petroleum industry, and the promotion of competitive, sustainable and well-regulated markets operating in the best interests of the nation. Exploration is essential for the future of Australia’s resources sector to enhance our international competitiveness while maintaining Australian energy security and that of our energy trading partners. Investment in offshore petroleum exploration is facilitated though the annual Offshore Petroleum Exploration Acreage Release prepared by the Australian Government Department of Industry and Geoscience Australia. The Offshore Petroleum Exploration Acreage Release is underpinned by a stable economic environment and clear regulatory framework that provides investment certainty and security of title. This paper provides details about the acreage included in the 2014 Offshore Petroleum Exploration Acreage Release. All areas are supported by geological data and analysis from Geoscience Australia. This paper also discusses the introduction of cash bidding for mature areas and areas containing known petroleum accumulations, in addition to Australian Government initiatives in the offshore petroleum sphere.

2012 ◽  
Vol 52 (1) ◽  
pp. 1
Author(s):  
Tania Constable

Australia has abundant natural gas reserves and is experiencing a rapid expansion of its liquefied natural gas (LNG) production capacity. In 2011 alone, four Australian LNG projects received final investment decisions (FIDs) and another FID was made in the first weeks of 2012. These projects will add more than 33 million tonnes of new LNG capacity, represent more than $100 billion in investment, and will see Australia become the world’s second largest LNG exporter by 2015. These projects are underpinned by Australia’s stable economic environment and our effective and efficient legislative regime that provides the industry the confidence to pursue a variety of investment opportunities. The essential first step covered by this regime is exploration, which is supported by Australia’s annual Offshore Petroleum Exploration Acreage Release. Prepared by the Department of Resources, Energy and Tourism and Geoscience Australia, the annual Acreage Release is the key mechanism used by the Australian Government to encourage investment in petroleum exploration. The 2012 Acreage Release areas have been carefully selected to offer the global petroleum exploration industry a variety of investment opportunities. Areas vary in size, level of existing geological knowledge, and are located in a range of water depths. Selected areas are supported by pre-competitive geological and geophysical data and analysis undertaken by Geoscience Australia. The detailed Acreage Release information package is available at online at www.petroleum-acreage.gov.au or by visiting the Commonwealth Government’s booth at the APPEA conference.


2013 ◽  
Vol 53 (1) ◽  
pp. 63
Author(s):  
Tania Constable

Exploration is essential for the future of Australia’s resources sector, to enhance our international competitiveness and ensure the long-term growth of this important industry while maintaining Australian energy security and that of our major energy trading partners. Encouraging investment in offshore petroleum exploration is facilitated though the annual Offshore Petroleum Exploration Acreage Release prepared in collaboration between the Department of Resources, Energy and Tourism, and Geoscience Australia. The annual release is underpinned by a stable economic environment, and a regulatory framework that provides the industry with a variety of investment opportunities. Australia has abundant natural gas reserves and is experiencing a rapid expansion of its LNG production capacity. Today, Australia is the world’s fourth-largest exporter of LNG, with a total export capacity of 24.3 million tonnes per annum from its three operational projects. Capacity will further increase to around 80 million tonnes per annum in 2017 once the seven projects presently under construction come online. These projects represent more than US$175 billion in capital expenditure announced since mid-2007, and result in Australia becoming the only country to use three LNG production models: conventional offshore gas with onshore LNG production; FLNG production; and, CSG-based LNG production. This paper will provide detail about the acreage included in the 2013 Offshore Petroleum Exploration Acreage Release. Areas are carefully selected to offer the global petroleum industry a variety of investment opportunities. This paper will also discuss the supporting regulatory environment and new government initiatives, including the introduction of a five-year exploration strategy for acreage release and the introduction of a cash bidding system as part of future offshore petroleum acreage releases.


2010 ◽  
Vol 50 (1) ◽  
pp. 1
Author(s):  
John Hartwell

The sustainable annual release of quality petroleum exploration acreage, to provide the global petroleum exploration industry with a variety of investment opportunities in Australian waters, is a key objective of the Australian Government. The annual Offshore Petroleum Exploration Acreage Release (Acreage Release) is underpinned by Australia’s stable economic environment and well-established regulatory framework for offshore petroleum activities. The 2010 Acreage Release areas are located across five basins. Release areas have been carefully selected to offer a range of investment opportunities; areas vary in size, known prospectivity, water depth and level of existing geological data and knowledge. Areas are supported by pre-competitive geological and geophysical data and analysis undertaken by Geoscience Australia.


2009 ◽  
Vol 49 (1) ◽  
pp. 463
Author(s):  
John Hartwell

John Hartwell is Head of the Resources Division in the Department of Resources, Energy and Tourism, Canberra Australia. The Resources Division provides advice to the Australian Government on policy issues, legislative changes and administrative matters related to the petroleum industry, upstream and downstream and the coal and minerals industries. In addition to his divisional responsibilities, he is the Australian Commissioner for the Australia/East Timor Joint Petroleum Development Area and Chairman of the National Oil and Gas Safety Advisory Committee. He also chairs two of the taskforces, Clean Fossil Energy and Aluminium, under the Asia Pacific Partnership for Clean Development and Climate (AP6). He serves on two industry and government leadership groups delivering reports to the Australian Government, strategies for the oil and gas industry and framework for the uranium industry. More recently he led a team charged with responsibility for taking forward the Australian Government’s proposal to establish a global carbon capture and storage institute. He is involved in the implementation of a range of resource related initiatives under the Government’s Industry Action Agenda process, including mining and technology services, minerals exploration and light metals. Previously he served as Deputy Chairman of the Snowy Mountains Council and the Commonwealth representative to the Natural Gas Pipelines Advisory Committee. He has occupied a wide range of positions in the Australian Government dealing with trade, commodity, and energy and resource issues. He has worked in Treasury, the Department of Trade, Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and the Department of Primary Industries and Energy before the Department of Industry, Science and Resources. From 1992–96 he was a Minister Counsellor in the Australian Embassy, Washington, with responsibility for agriculture and resource issues and also served in the Australian High Commission, London (1981–84) as the Counsellor/senior trade relations officer. He holds a MComm in economics, and Honours in economics from the University of New South Wales, Australia. Prior to joining the Australian Government, worked as a bank economist. He was awarded a public service medal in 2005 for his work on resources issues for the Australian Government.


2007 ◽  
Vol 47 (1) ◽  
pp. 403
Author(s):  
B. Pegler ◽  
J. Lautenbach ◽  
L. Richards

The last few years have seen a range of important changes to the Commonwealth legislation governing offshore petroleum resources. Not the least of these has been the passing of the new Offshore Petroleum Act 2006 (OPA), which will replace the Petroleum (Submerged Lands) Act 1967 (PSLA), and the recent ratification of the Treaty on Certain Maritime Arrangements in the Timor Sea (CMATS) and the Greater Sunrise International Unitisation Agreement.The PSLA has been the primary legislation for the administration of Australia’s offshore petroleum resources for close to 40 years and, through age and many amendments, it has become complex and unwieldy. The Government saw the need to rewrite the Act to provide a more user-friendly enactment that would reduce compliance costs for governments and industry. The rewrite, passed as the Offshore Petroleum Act 2006, focussed on restructuring the Act, deleting outdated text, rewriting specific sections and generally improving its readability rather than rewriting the entire Act in plain English or changing present regulatory arrangements.The OPA was passed through the Commonwealth Parliament in 2006 and has been passed as mirror legislation to cover offshore waters by the majority of States and the Northern Territory. It will be proclaimed to cover Commonwealth waters once it has been mirrored by the States. The Australian Government will continue to press the remaining States to enact the OPA and it is hoped this process can be finalised later this year.Another major step forward has been the setting up of the National Offshore Petroleum Safety Authority (NOPSA). NOPSA is the centralised Australian Government statutory authority responsible for the administration and enforcement of occupational health and safety legislation in the offshore petroleum industry. It has this role for offshore petroleum activities both in Commonwealth waters and in State and Northern Territory offshore waters. The Safety Authority commenced its regulatory operations on 1 January 2005. It has its headquarters in Perth and an office in Melbourne.


2020 ◽  
pp. 431-434
Author(s):  
Oliver Arndt

This paper deals with the conversion of coke fired lime kilns to gas and the conclusions drawn from the completed projects. The paper presents (1) the decision process associated with the adoption of the new technology, (2) the necessary steps of the conversion, (3) the experiences and issues which occurred during the first campaign, (4) the impacts on the beet sugar factory (i.e. on the CO2 balance and exhaust gas temperature), (5) the long term impressions and capabilities of several campaigns of operation, (6) the details of available technologies and (7) additional benefits that would justify a conversion from coke to natural gas operation on existing lime kilns. (8) Forecast view to develop systems usable for alternative gaseous fuels (e.g. biogas).


Author(s):  
A. D. Chalfoun

Abstract Purpose of Review Anthropogenic activities can lead to the loss, fragmentation, and alteration of wildlife habitats. I reviewed the recent literature (2014–2019) focused on the responses of avian, mammalian, and herpetofaunal species to oil and natural gas development, a widespread and still-expanding land use worldwide. My primary goals were to identify any generalities in species’ responses to development and summarize remaining gaps in knowledge. To do so, I evaluated the directionality of a wide variety of responses in relation to taxon, location, development type, development metric, habitat type, and spatiotemporal aspects. Recent Findings Studies (n = 70) were restricted to the USA and Canada, and taxonomically biased towards birds and mammals. Longer studies, but not those incorporating multiple spatial scales, were more likely to detect significant responses. Negative responses of all types were present in relatively low frequencies across all taxa, locations, development types, and development metrics but were context-dependent. The directionality of responses by the same species often varied across studies or development metrics. Summary The state of knowledge about wildlife responses to oil and natural gas development has developed considerably, though many biases and gaps remain. Studies outside of North America and that focus on herpetofauna are lacking. Tests of mechanistic hypotheses for effects, long-term studies, assessment of response thresholds, and experimental designs that isolate the effects of different stimuli associated with development, remain critical. Moreover, tests of the efficacy of habitat mitigation efforts have been rare. Finally, investigations of the demographic effects of development across the full annual cycle were absent for non-game species and are critical for the estimation of population-level effects.


2000 ◽  
Vol 41 (10-11) ◽  
pp. 117-123 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. Visvanathan ◽  
P. Svenstrup ◽  
P. Ariyamethee

This paper presents a case study of a natural gas production site covering various technical issues related to selection of an appropriate Reverse Osmosis (RO) system. The long-term field experience indicates the necessity of the selection of appropriate pretreatment systems for fouling-free RO operational conditions. The produced water has a variety of impurities such as oil and grease, process chemicals used for corrosion and scaling control, and dehydration of natural gas, etc. This situation leads to a complicated and extremely difficult task for a membrane specialist to design RO systems, especially the pre-treatment section. Here as part of the pretreatment selection, two types of UF membrane modules viz. spiral wound and hollow fibre, with MWCO of 8000 and 50,000 Dalton respectively, were tested in parallel with NF membranes of the spiral wound type with MWCO 200 Dalton. The UF permeate is used as feed for RO compatibility testing. Both configurations of UF failed to be compatible, due to irreversible fouling of the RO membrane. The NF membrane, however, showed interesting results, due to membrane stability in terms of cleaning and fouling. The NF plant with 50% capacity gave a recovery of 75% and the RO plant gave a recovery of 60% versus the expected 92–95%. The long-term tests have indicated that the reminder of the membranes could be installed to achieve full capacity of the plant. This study also demonstrates the importance of selection of proper pre-treatment set-up for the RO system design.


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