Gas swaps a possibility in WA
COMPANIES developing onshore unconventional gas projects may be able to discharge their obligations under the Western Australia government’s proposed gas reservation allocation.
Whicher Range Energy founder Brendan Egan said informal discussions with the Department of Mines and Petroleum had indicated the state’s willingness to consider onshore for offshore gas swaps to increase the stability of WA’s domestic gas supply.
“Offshore gas projects that are too far from the WA coast or perhaps too economically marginal to consider piping the gas to shore should consider investing in unconventional onshore projects as a means for them to satisfy the state’s demand for a percentage of all offshore gas discoveries to be reserved for the domestic gas market,” Egan said.
“Some of the proposed stand-alone gas projects which are floating in design, and do not include a gas trunkline to shore, would be able to discharge their allocation to the state by assisting to develop onshore gas sources.”
He added this would allow offshore projects to proceed as initially planned while giving onshore gas exploration and development a boost.
“I think this is one of those situations where, once government has indicated some flexibility in policy as it has done here, industry needs to be pro-active and chase down these opportunities.
“It is our understanding that proponents need to sit down together, work out an investment strategy and then present it to government for approval.
“Marginal or remote fields will have more of a chance of being economic and therefore attracting the required capital investment if arbitrage opportunities like this can be utilised.”
Thursday, 4 March 2010
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