Chevron shifts offshore in $500m Bight Basin pushTHE AUSTRALIAN...

Chevron shifts offshore in $500m Bight Basin push
THE AUSTRALIAN OCTOBER 24, 2013 12:00AM


ENERGY giant Chevron is preparing to spend almost $500 million on oil and gas exploration as part of a massive push into the Bight Basin off South Australia, in a departure from its primary focus on LNG projects in Western Australia.

Federal Industry Minister Ian Macfarlane said yesterday that exploration permits had been awarded to Chevron to explore in two frontier offshore blocks spanning more than 32,000sqkm -- almost doubling the US group's total offshore acreage holdings in Australia.

The Bight Basin, part of the Great Australian Bight, is believed to be highly prospective and is similar in size to the Gulf of Mexico.

Last year, the federal government granted permits to BP in the Bight Basin, marking the first time the environmentally sensitive region had been explored for more than a decade.

But the push into the basin has angered green groups, which point to BP's record as operator of the Deepwater Horizon rig that exploded in 2010, killing 11 workers and spilling an estimated 4.9 billion barrels of oil across Gulf of Mexico waters and beaches.

Chevron's main focus in Australia is on the two liquefied natural gas plants it is building in WA -- the $52 billion Gorgon project and the $29bn Wheatstone venture. It also has a 16.7 per cent stake in the huge North West Shelf LNG project in the Pilbara.

However, the company diversified into shale gas earlier this year when it paid $US349m ($361.4m) to buy into two shale gas exploration projects in South Australia's onshore Cooper Basin, in what analysts interpreted as a bet on a rise in gas prices on Australia's east coast.

As part of the federal government's latest auction of exploration blocks, Chevron has pledged to spend $237m exploring a permit 200km west of Ceduna and a further $249m on a permit 300km southwest of Ceduna.

Chevron's president of Asia-Pacific exploration and production, Melody Meyer, said: "The acquisition . . . demonstrates Chevron's continued focus on pursuing high-impact exploration opportunities to expand its resource base."

Mr Macfarlane said the Chevron permits were part of $580m of planned spending by petroleum companies over the next three years.

"This record investment in offshore exploration shows that the resources sector in Australia remains strong," he said.

Santos and US company Murphy Oil were also awarded a permit in the Bight Basin, and promised to spend $50m.

Woodside Petroleum and Japanese company Mitsui won the right to explore in a permit off WA's Kimberley coast, about 350km northwest of Broome, while Royal Dutch Shell won a permit that lies 360km northwest of Exmouth in the Carnarvon Basin.

South Australia's Energy Minister, Tom Koutsantonis, said the state's "energy revolution" continued to attract big interest from local and overseas companies.