B07 Oil and Gas Extraction

Wesfarmers makes $US100m oil, gas play

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Original article by Julie-anne Sprague, Angela Macdonald-Smith
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 23 : 25-Jun-15

Wesfarmers will pay $US100m ($A129m) for a 27.4 per cent stake in a special-purpose vehicle that holds the Quadrant Energy stakes of Angela Bennett and Macquarie Capital. This in turn will give Wesfarmers a 13.7 per cent stake in Quadrant, which was previously known as Apache Australia and owns oil and gas assets in Western Australia. Wesfarmers MD Richard Goyder describes the Quadrant stake as a stand-alone investment for the conglomerate.

CORPORATES
WESFARMERS LIMITED – ASX WES, QUADRANT ENERGY PTY LTD, MACQUARIE CAPITAL PTY LTD, APACHE CORPORATION, AMB HOLDINGS PTY LTD, COLES SUPERMARKETS AUSTRALIA PTY LTD, KMART AUSTRALIA LIMITED, CSBP LIMITED, BROOKFIELD ASSET MANAGEMENT INCORPORATED, SEVEN GROUP HOLDINGS LIMITED – ASX SVW, NEXUS ENERGY LIMITED, BEACH ENERGY LIMITED – ASX BPT, DRILLSEARCH ENERGY LIMITED – ASX DLS

Woodside mulls $US8.5b Texas LNG export project

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Original article by Angela Macdonald-Smith
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 16 : 5-Jun-15

Woodside Petroleum and US-based Sempra Energy are expected to make a final investment decision on a proposed LNG export terminal in 2017. Development of the Port Arthur project in Texas could cost about $US8.5bn ($A10.9bn), according to Citigroup. The export terminal would have annual production capacity of 10 million tonnes. Woodside is keen to build its presence in the LNG trading sector.

CORPORATES
WOODSIDE PETROLEUM LIMITED – ASX WPL, SEMPRA ENERGY, UNITED STATES. FEDERAL ENERGY REGULATORY COMMISSION, CHENIERE ENERGY INCORPORATED, CITIGROUP PTY LTD

LNG projects risk start delays

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Original article by Angela Macdonald-Smith
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 13 & 18 : 25-May-15

Wood Mackenzie has forecast that several major LNG projects in Australia will not commence production on schedule. The consulting firm expects Inpex’s Ichthys project to begin production in 2017 rather than late 2016, although Inpex executives have recently indicated that the original timeframe will be met. Wood Mackenzie also anticipates that the Wheatstone and Gorgon projects will face delays in commencing production.

CORPORATES
WOOD MACKENZIE, INPEX CORPORATION, CHEVRON CORPORATION, SAMSUNG HEAVY INDUSTRIES COMPANY LIMITED, ROYAL DUTCH SHELL PLC, DAEWOO CORPORATION, ICHTHYS LNG PTY LTD, WOODSIDE PETROLEUM LIMITED – ASX WPL, CHEVRON AUSTRALIA PTY LTD, DEUTSCHE BANK AG, MACQUARIE PRIVATE WEALTH MANAGEMENT PTY LTD

‘Leaner’ Woodside targets acquisitions

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Original article by Angela Macdonald-Smith
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 13 & 18 : 22-May-15

Woodside Petroleum is expected to decide whether to proceed with the Greater Enfield oil project in 2016. The group will commence engineering and design work on the Western Australian project ahead of schedule, in order to secure lower costs for oil rigs. CEO Peter Coleman has also flagged acquisitions, including oil projects and LNG receiving terminals in Asia. Woodside is also seeking to reduce costs and improve productivity.

CORPORATES
WOODSIDE PETROLEUM LIMITED – ASX WPL, APACHE CORPORATION, RBC CAPITAL MARKETS, CHEVRON CORPORATION, WOOD MACKENZIE, MITSUI AND COMPANY LIMITED

Services sector ‘well placed’ for LNG boom

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Original article by Angela Macdonald-Smith
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 17 & 23 : 21-May-15

WorleyParsons CEO Andrew Wood rejects suggestions that mining services groups lack the capacity to handle huge growth in Australia’s LNG industry in coming years. Chevron Australia MD Roy Krzywosinski recently expressed concern about the ability of mining services providers to cope with the increase in LNG production. Wood argues that once projects commence production their maintenance requirements are much lower than in the construction stage.

CORPORATES
WORLEYPARSONS LIMITED – ASX WOR, CHEVRON AUSTRALIA PTY LTD, ACCENTURE AUSTRALIA LIMITED, BG GROUP PLC, CHEVRON CORPORATION, AUSTRALIAN PETROLEUM PRODUCTION AND EXPLORATION ASSOCIATION LIMITED, INPEX CORPORATION, SEVEN GROUP HOLDINGS LIMITED – ASX SVW, AUSTRALIAN MINES AND METALS ASSOCIATION (INCORPORATED), KPMG AUSTRALIA PTY LTD

Barclays: oil will be lower for longer

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Original article by Angela Macdonald-Smith
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 27 : 21-May-15

The price of West Texas Intermediate crude oil was trading at $US58.60 per barrel on 20 May 2015. Grant Porter of Barclays is bearish about crude oil, forecasting that the US price could trade at around the $US65 level until at least 2017. He notes that drilling work at many US oil wells is partially complete, and they will begin production when the oil price becomes more favourable.

CORPORATES
BARCLAYS BANK PLC, THE GOLDMAN SACHS GROUP INCORPORATED, ROYAL DUTCH SHELL PLC, BG GROUP PLC

LNG barge resurfaces

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Original article by Angela Macdonald-Smith
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 19 : 20-May-15

Santos and Engie dropped plans to use floating LNG technology for the Bonaparte gas project in mid-2015, as it was deemed to be unviable. However, the two groups may revisit the proposal by placing an FLNG plant on a barge just off the coast of the Northern Territory. It is estimated that this would reduce the cost of using FLNG technology from $US4bn to around $US2bn. It would also cut the Bonaparte project’s annual production from 2.6 million tonnes of LNG to two million tonnes.

CORPORATES
SANTOS LIMITED – ASX STO, ENGIE SA, CITIGROUP PTY LTD

Santos seeks bigger chunk of LNG pie

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Original article by Angela Macdonald-Smith
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 15 & 20 : 18-May-15

Australian-listed Santos may acquire a stake in Papua New Guinea’s P’nyang gas field, which would be used to expand the PNG LNG venture in which the group is already a partner. A final investment decision on the proposed expansion will be made in 2017. Meanwhile, Santos and its partners in a Malaysian oil project have had encouraging results from a drilling program. Santo’s Caldita-Barossa venture is also in the running to supply gas to the Darwin LNG plant if a proposed expansion of the facility proceeds.

CORPORATES
SANTOS LIMITED – ASX STO, OIL SEARCH LIMITED – ASX OSH, EXXONMOBIL CORPORATION, JX NIPPON OIL AND ENERGY CORPORATION, CONOCOPHILLIPS, SK GROUP, WOODSIDE PETROLEUM LIMITED – ASX WPL, ROYAL DUTCH SHELL PLC, CHEVRON CORPORATION, AUSTRALIAN PETROLEUM PRODUCTION AND EXPLORATION ASSOCIATION LIMITED, HESS CORPORATION, AWE LIMITED – ASX AWE

Oil and gas on U-shape recovery, says AMEC

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Original article by Jenny Wiggins
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 23 : 10-Apr-15

AMEC Foster Wheeler CFO Ian McHoul expects difficult conditions in the oil and gas sector for another 1-2 years. He suggests that the eventual upturn in the sector is more likely to be U-shaped rather than V-shaped. The UK-based engineering group’s growing clean energy business is helping to offset falling demand for oil and gas industry services. The group is interested in Australian acquisitions

CORPORATES
AMEC FOSTER WHEELER PLC, WORLEYPARSONS LIMITED – ASX WOR, KBR INCORPORATED, FLUOR CORPORATION, AECOM, JACOBS ENGINEERING GROUP INCORPORATED, UBS HOLDINGS PTY LTD

Oil price will not make a splash before December quarter, says NAB

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Original article by Angela Macdonald-Smith
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 26 : 8-Apr-15

West Texas Intermediate crude oil rallied on 6 April 2015, to $US52.14 per barrel, and Brent crude oil traded at $US58.12. Meanwhile, National Australia Bank has forecast that the price of Brent oil will average $US54 during the June quarter and $US58 in the September quarter. However, the banking major is more upbeat about the longer-term price, forecasting that it will average $US63 per barrel in the December quarter

CORPORATES
NATIONAL AUSTRALIA BANK LIMITED – ASX NAB, WOODSIDE PETROLEUM LIMITED – ASX WPL, UNITED STATES. DEPT OF ENERGY. ENERGY INFORMATION ADMINISTRATION