LNG

Japanese trading house Mitsui and Company Ltd, has purchased more shale-gas assets in Texas and plans to bring them to full-scale development and production as possible feed-gas supplies for LNG output.

June 13 (LNGJ) - Beach Energy, the Australian exploration and production company and recent LNG player, has successfully connected the Enterprise natural gas field located just offshore Port Campbell in the state of Victoria to the Otway Gas Plant, with first sales gas delivered on June 12, 2024.

   Beach signed a Gas Sales Agreement (GSA) to supply utility company Origin Energy with gas from the Enterprise field until the end of 2026. “First gas from the Enterprise field is a significant milestone in Beach’s target of delivering a material increase in production and free cash flow over the next 12 months,” said Chief Executive Brett Woods, whose company also has a stake in the gas and LNG project onshore the Perth Basin in Western Australia.

April 24 (LNGJ) - Beach Energy, a partner of Japan’s Mitsui in the delayed Waitsia LNG project in the onshore Perth Basin of Western Australia, reported an increase in sales revenue from a year ago to A$392 million (US$254M) from A$353M in the 2023 quarter. “Our results were overshadowed by the delay to construction of the Waitsia Gas Plant and weather-related impacts to production,” said Beach’s Chief Executive Brett Wood. “The ongoing emergence of quality issues at Waitsia during the pre-commissioning phase is disappointing,” stated the CEO.

   Beach added that in the Perth Basin drilling campaign there were “pleasing results” including a gas discovery at Redback Deep. “Three gas discoveries and one gas development well from our operated campaign is an encouraging outcome which will provide valuable backfill volumes,” Wood said. Beach’s Enterprise well in the Otway Basin of south Australia is also on track to provide a valuable new gas supply source for the East Coast.

Feb 28 (LNGJ) - Strike Energy, the Australian exploration and production company in the onshore Perth Basin of Western Australia, noted in its latest earnings that energy players were awaiting a decision on whether the state would be banning the export of onshore gas as LNG amid forecasts of a shortage of domestic gas in the coming years.

   Strike Energy said that the natural gas warnings came as 2023 was deemed the worst year for gas exploration activities in the state of WA for the last 25 years. Strike said that its Walyering gas field in the Perth Basin started production in the fiscal first quarter with gas and condensate generating A$8.13 million (US$5.32M) in revenue for the company. WA state spot natural gas prices were relatively stable at an average of the equivalent of around US$6.20 per million British thermal units during the period.

Beach Energy Ltd, the Australian company involved in the Waitsia LNG export project in the onshore Perth Basin of Western Australia and in other natural gas ventures in South Australia and New Zealand, posted a fiscal first-half loss as it awaited major project completions.

May 17 (LNGJ) - Beach Energy, the company involved in the Waitsia gas development and LNG project in the Perth Basin of Western Australia, has also progressed with new gas wells connected to the Otway Gas Plant in the southern Australian state of Victoria.

   The company said it had connected two more gas wells in the offshore Otway Basin to the Otway Gas Plant and was now delivering additional gas into the Australian East Coast domestic gas market. “Four of the six Otway development wells that were drilled as part of the major drilling campaign are now connected,” Beach said. The company added that it was reviewing its preferred approach to connecting the final two wells, which will require either the repair or replacement of a flowline.

Clough Group, the Australian energy and civil construction company whose projects include the Waitsia LNG joint venture in Western Australia, has collapsed after a takeover deal fell through.

Beach Energy, the Australian exploration and production company set to become the nation’s newest LNG exporter in 2023, has completed its Otway Basin drilling campaign offshore South Australia and Victoria to boost domestic supplies.

Beach Energy, the Australian oil and gas company and newest prospective LNG exporter from the onshore Perth Basin, has posted a jump in fiscal half-year net profit after tax as it made progress on its LNG export project and the provision of offshore natural gas to the East Coast market .

Clough, the Australian energy engineering company, said it achieved its first major concrete pour and first structural steel erection on site at the Waitsia 2 gas project being constructed for LNG production in the Perth Basin onshore Western Australia.

Clough won the engineering, procurement and construction work for the field near the town of Dongara, located about 350 kilometres (217 miles) north of the city of Perth and 65km south of the town of Geraldton.

Beach Energy of Australia and a subsidiary of Japan’s Mitsui and Co. each own 50 percent of the venture and Mitsui is the operator of the Waitsia field.

Beach and Mitsui have also finalized and signed key commercial agreements with shareholders of the North West Shelf LNG plant to enable LNG exports, with the State of Western Australia and the pipeline and project company, Australian Gas Infrastructure Group (AGIG).

Clough said the concrete pour at the site was a 14 cubic metres condensate storage slab and bund, which was followed later that same day by the first steel erection.

“This will form the main spine of the facility, a central 200-metre pipe track weighing over 100 tonnes,” Clough explained.

The start of full construction activities came a week after the first night of occupation at the recently completed temporary construction village.

“With bulk earthworks and piling now nearing completion, the project ramps up and hits its next phase of self-perform structural, mechanical and piping construction work,” said Clough.

The Waitsia gas field is ranked one of the largest gas fields ever discovered onshore in Australia and it is forecast to bring significant economic benefits to the Mid-West region from both construction and operating phases.

The Waitsia Stage 2 project includes a new gas processing plant with a 20-year life-cycle that will convey gas via the nearby Dampier to Bunbury Natural Gas Pipeline.

The Beach-Mitsui venture and Woodside Petroleum subsidiary, Woodside Burrup Pty Ltd, with gas from the Pluto gas fields, have become the inaugural third parties to sign binding commercial access agreements with the North West Shelf LNG partners.

The six NWS LNG partners are Australia’s Woodside and BHP, UK major BP, Chevron Corp., Royal Dutch Shell and a Japanese partnership comprising Mitsubishi Corp. and Waitsia gas shareholder Mitsui.

The Gas Processing Agreement and related agreements signed with the NWS LNG will enable up to 1.5 million tonnes of LNG per annum to be tolled and processed into LNG through the NWS facilities in Karratha between the second half of 2023 and the end of 2028.

Beach and Mitsui will each market their respective LNG equity interests independently of the NWS LNG plant partners.

Mitsui is already a long-standing LNG exporter while Beach will become an LNG player for the first time in the company’s 60-year history.