“The View from Down Under” – October 2020

Greetings from Perth in the depths of what passes for Winter in these parts.

Those of us who are fortunate to live in Western Australia are anxiously watching our compatriots in Melbourne as they endure another lockdown. Thankfully at the time of writing the spike of the 2nd wave appears to be on a downward trend.

Enquiries are taking place at the moment as to how this outbreak got so out of control, from the information in the public domain, it appears to have been preventable:  lack of due process, lack of training, lack of accountability – does that sound familiar? No doubt the lessons learned will be shared nationally and globally.

In the offshore space there are more signs of life, Diamond and Beach have agreed a way forward for the Ocean Onyx, it is expected to start a 6 well plus 3 options campaign in the Otway Basin between December 2020 and March 2021.

Elsewhere offshore Victoria, BHP announced they are looking to sell their 50% non-operated holdings in the Bass Strait, XOM who are the Operator are reported to have had the assets up for sale for some time.

It will be interesting to see the authorities’ approach to decommissioning liabilities after the issues with the Tui field across the pond in New Zealand and up North on the Laminaria / Corallina fields.

One of the semis off the NW coast which suffered a delay to the start of its contract due to COVID is preparing to crew up to be ready to start drilling in October.

EOI and Tendering activity ongoing for drilling in the Timor Sea and the NW Coast of Australia 2021 and same expected for work offshore New Zealand, exploration & appraisal drilling and possible P&A work.

Read the latest issue of the OGV Energy magazine HERE.