Deepwater Explorations to Dominate Australia’s LNG Market

Monday 22 October 2012, Amsterdam

The big spending of oil and gas firms and a focus on deepwater drilling will see Australia overtake Qatar as the biggest global producer of Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) by 2017, states the latest research from natural resources analysts.

The report says that domestic and regional demand has spurred Australia to intensify deepwater natural gas production from the country’s abundant offshore reserves.

Deepwater drilling is a highly rewarding but expensive and risky endeavour. Australia’s offshore drilling expenditure in 2011 was $1.9 bn – $1.3 bn of which was dedicated to deepwater hydrocarbon production. The report predicts this portion will grow to $2.5 bn by just 2016, while shallow water expenditure will exhibit minimal growth, increasing by just $0.06 billion during the same period.

Australian offshore natural gas exploration has intensified since the economic catastrophe of 2008: in 2009, 72 wells were drilled, but this figure has increased steadily each year and is expected to reach 153 in 2016.

The Australian government has been strongly promoting the usage of LNG as a primary source of fuel for heavy goods transport along its highways, spurring on further investments by creating a consistent demand.

Woodside Petroleum and Apache Corporation are the top lease-holders in offshore Australia, holding leases for 55 and 53 blocks respectively in 2011, followed by Santos, Chevron and BHP Billiton, with 27, 25 and 22 blocks, respectively.

For the entire Asia-Pacific region, offshore drilling expenditure will climb from $16 bn in 2011 to $24 bn in 2016, with an expected deepwater spend of $14 billion in the final year.