Australia’s oil and gas industry urgently needs to accelerate the creation of energy superbasins to provide a path to greater sustainability and lower emissions.
This is according to Anne Forbes, Upstream research analyst at Wood Mackenzie (WoodMac), the company highlighted in a statement published on its website, adding that a super basin is an area where large hydrocarbon resources are placed with the potential to clean abundantly. electricity and large-scale carbon capture and storage (CCS).
At the recent Australian Petroleum Production and Exploration Association (APPEA) conference in Adelaide, Forbes said superbasin development in Australia is possible in certain advantageous locations, but added it will be challenging in the current economic conditions where additional costs can affect profit margins. , the WoodMac statement noted.
According to the release, Australia has the highest CO2 intensity per barrel of oil equivalent of the major producing countries, with an average of 42 tonnes of CO2 per product per thousand barrels of oil equivalent. This is mainly caused by the dominance of the liquefied natural gas (LNG) sector in Australia, which uses an energy-intensive liquefaction process, the WoodMac statement noted.
“As upstream becomes more intertwined with low-carbon and zero-carbon businesses, some serious questions will be asked of Australian operators,” Forbes told delegates at the APPEA event, the statement said.
“Turning Australia’s vast underserved gas reserves into a better and more resilient investment opportunity will require collaboration across the energy spectrum, something that has historically rarely happened in the sector,” Forbes added.
In the statement, WoodMac noted that global upstream super basins were originally defined as holding more than 10 billion barrels of oil equivalent of recoverable resource, of which more than five billion barrels of oil equivalent remain of oil Globally, more than 90 percent of current oil and gas production comes from about 40 superbasins, WoodMac revealed.
APPEA conference
In a closing address to APPEA’s conference sent to Rigzone on Thursday, APPEA chief executive Samantha McCulloch said: “we need to do more to educate the Australian public about what our industry does.”
“That we provide reliable energy for Australian homes and industries, supporting our transition to renewables. That we help maintain Australia’s strategic relationships with important regional trading partners by contributing to energy security and the energy transition of the region. That we are literally the engine room of Australian manufacturing,” McCulloch added in the speech.
“And that we are serious about our role in Australia’s energy transition and the path to net zero. This is a story we need to tell better,” continued APPEA’s CEO.
In the speech, McCulloch noted that, “as Australia moves towards decarbonising our energy grid, homes and industries, our industry is at the forefront of both the challenge and the opportunity this transition presents.”
“APPEA will continue to work constructively with Australian governments and oppositions to ensure our industry operates in an environment that encourages investment in new gas supply and the technologies that will deliver our clean energy future.” McCulloch said.
The APPEA conference, which took place from 15 to 18 May, is described as Australia’s energy event run by the industry, for the industry. This year’s theme was Lead, Shape, Innovate: Accelerate to Net Zero.
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