Academic literature on the topic 'Oil and gas development projects'

The boom in Australian oil and gas development continued in 2013, with record overall investment of $60 billion. This investment resulted from spending on the seven LNG projects under development, together with that on numerous other oil and gas developments. These projects are expected to collectively contribute up to 665 million barrels of oil equivalent (MMboe) to Australia’s oil and gas production, which totaled 513.8 MMboe in 2013. LNG, presently Australia’s seventh largest export, is likely to soon rival the nation’s largest export, iron ore. By the end of 2013, three of the LNG projects under construction—Gorgon, Queensland Curtis LNG (QCLNG) and Gladstone LNG (GLNG)—were more than 70% complete; first LNG will be before the end of 2014 for QCLNG and in 2015 for Gorgon, GLNG and Australia Pacific LNG (APLNG). The other three LNG projects—Wheatstone, Prelude and Ichthys—are close behind. These new LNG projects follow Pluto, Australia’s third LNG project, which commenced production in 2012. A full year of production from Pluto drove increased gas production in 2013. Woodside also completed the North Rankin redevelopment and continued development of the Greater Western Flank, both of which will extend the life of the North West Shelf (NWS) project. A number of other projects also commenced production. In the Carnarvon Basin, oil production began at Santos’s Fletcher-Finucane Field, and at BHP Billiton’s Macedon project, domestic gas production started. In the Timor Sea, PTTEP’s Montara Field began production of oil. In Victoria, the ExxonMobil Kipper-Turrum-Tuna project came online, with the production of gas from Tuna and oil from Turrum. Production of gas from Origin Energy’s Geographe Field (as part of the Otway Gas Project) commenced in mid-2013. Onshore oil production grew in 2013, with the Cooper-Eromanga Basin now producing more oil than any other onshore Australian basin. A major effort is underway to increase production from the western flank oil trend and to develop both the conventional and unconventional gas fields in the Cooper Basin. Spending on the development of new projects probably peaked in 2013 and there is growing concern about a dearth of future projects, with expansion of existing LNG projects and development of new projects being pushed back due to a combination of increased costs and growing international competition. There are also ongoing industry concerns about impediments to onshore gas exploration and development generally.

Australian petroleum production was close to record levels in 2007 with higher oil production and expansion of domestic gas, LNG and coal seam gas production. Growth in coal seam gas production has reached the point where it is not only providing a significant supply source for domestic gas and power station projects, but is proposed as the source of supply to no less than four potential LNG export plants in Queensland. Five new oil and gas developments came on stream during the year. Four final investment decisions were taken on major projects, the largest being the Pluto project in the Carnarvon Basin. The pipeline of committed and potential projects now includes about 25 significant petroleum projects with a combined value of over $100 billion. Together these have the potential to significantly increase Australian production in the next five to ten years, primarily through growing gas production. In the near term significant new oil projects carry the prospect of higher oil production in 2008. Cost estimates for new projects continued to escalate sharply and skills shortages in all parts of the project delivery chain threaten the ability to deliver all of the projects as contemplated.

Australian hydrocarbon production reached record levels in 2009 due to strong growth in production of LNG from the North West Shelf Venture. Domestic gas production also reached record levels. Coal seam gas production continued to grow, with the continuing development of existing fields and the development of the Kenya and Talinga projects in Queensland. Two new conventional gas projects also came into production: Blacktip in the Timor Sea and Longtom in the Gippsland Basin. However oil production was below that in the previous year, reflecting natural field decline and the absence of large scale projects reaching production. The project sanction highlight of the year was the final investment decision on the $43 billion Gorgon LNG project. This project will comprise three LNG trains with total capacity of 15 million tonnes per annum plus a domestic gas plant. The first gas from this project is planned for 2014. Eight other potential LNG projects are in various stages of front end engineering and design, most targeting final investment decisions in 2010 or 2011. The pipeline of committed and potential LNG projects has a combined value estimated to be well over $100 billion. These projects have the potential to significantly increase Australian LNG production over the next five to ten years. In the near term the start-up of the Van Gogh, Pyrenees and Turrum oil projects are expected to provide some respite from the decline in Australian oil production. Cost estimates for new projects are again escalating and skills shortages in all parts of the project delivery chain threaten the ability to deliver all of the projects under consideration.

The rapid and accurate evaluation of oil and gas assets, specifically for new development projects, poses a significant challenge due to the various project types, limited data availability, brief periods for assessment and decision making, and constraints arising from varying contractual and taxation conditions, political stability, and societal factors. This study leverages the grading standards of the evaluation index system for new oil and gas field development projects, along with relevant mathematical theories and methods for project evaluation and optimization. We developed an asset evaluation approach for new oil and gas projects by analyzing the assets of six new oil and gas field development projects in Brazil. This analysis resulted in the grading and ranking of new projects, and we tested and demonstrated four asset optimization techniques. After a comparative analysis with conventional evaluation results, we established an oil and gas project asset optimization approach centered on the cloud model comprehensive evaluation and linear weighted ranking, exhibiting Kendall’s tau coefficient of 0.8667 with conventional methods. The findings suggest that the combination of the cloud model comprehensive evaluation method with the linear weighted ranking method can facilitate asset optimization for oil and gas field development projects, meeting the practical needs for fast selection among various new projects. Furthermore, this research offers a technical and theoretical foundation for rapid evaluation and decision making regarding new assets.

The conversion from the development of large deposits to unconventional, small and Arctic deposits of hydrocarbon raw materials in the Russian requires oil and gas companies improving the quality of the economic justification of projects, including cost-effectively recoverable reserves. For this reason, the development of the discounted cash flow (DCF) method for economic evaluation of oil and gas projects is required. The purpose of the study was to develop a methodological approach to the economic evaluation of oil and gas projects. The disadvantages of the DCF model in the economic evaluation of oil and gas field development projects are analyzed, a comparative analysis of project evaluation methods through the use of binary and reverting discounting models is performed. The authors justified the choice of a risk-free discount rate for project outflows and dynamically changing values of discount rates for project cash inflows for the evaluation of oil and gas projects, taking into account their identified features. The application of the developed methodological approach, both at the pre-project phase and during the operation of the field, will allow oil and gas companies to justify the magnitude of commercially exploitable reserves and indicators of the economic efficiency of the project due to more correct risk accounting. The developed methodological approach has been approved on the example of the Novoportovskoye field development project.

In the face of today’s global challenges, oil and gas companies must define long-term priorities and opportunities in implementing complex Arctic offshore projects, taking into account environmental, economic, technological and social aspects. In this regard, ensuring strategic sustainability is the basis for long-term development. The aim of the study is to analyze existing approaches to the concept of “strategic sustainability” of an offshore Arctic oil and gas project and to develop a methodological approach to assessing the strategic sustainability of offshore oil and gas projects. In the theoretical part of the study, the approaches to defining strategic sustainability were reviewed, and their classification was completed, and the most appropriate definition of strategic sustainability for an offshore oil and gas project was chosen. The method of hierarchy analysis was used for strategic sustainability assessment. Specific criteria have been proposed to reflect the technical, geological, investment, social and environmental characteristics important to the offshore oil and gas project. The strategic sustainability of 5 offshore oil and gas projects was analyzed using an expert survey as part of the hierarchy analysis method. Recommendations were made on the development of an offshore project management system to facilitate the emergence of new criteria and improve the quality of the strategic sustainability assessment of offshore projects in the Arctic.

This Petroleum Exploration Society of Australia review looks in detail at the trends and highlights for oil and gas production and development both onshore and offshore Australia during 2018. Total petroleum production climbed strongly for the third consecutive year, driven by LNG. A highlight is the start-up of the INPEX Ichthys project. Production is set for further growth in 2019 with the ramp-up of this project and the start-up of Shell’s Prelude floating LNG project. Prelude and Ichthys are the last projects to be commissioned in a wave of seven new LNG projects that are making Australia the world’s largest LNG exporter and a crucial supplier of gas to Asia, including the largest source of LNG for Japan and China and the second-largest source for South Korea. By contrast, Australian oil production continued to fall rapidly and is now easily surpassed by rising condensate production from new LNG projects. There were stark contrasts between domestic gas on the west and east coasts. On the west coast, prices remain low and supply relatively plentiful. The east coast domestic market was tighter and LNG producers responded by diverting gas supplies to the domestic market. This paper canvasses these trends and makes conclusions about the condition of the oil and gas industry in Australia. This paper relies primarily on production and reserves data compiled by EnergyQuest and published in its EnergyQuarterly reports.

The present article describes a research that examines the sources of flexibility in the investment projects in the oil and gas industry using multiple case studies of several oil and gas projects. More precisely, the study is concerned with revealing uncertainties that give rise to real options. Ultimately, the methodology for real options identification in the exploration & development type of investment projects of the oil and gas industry is proposed. It is anticipated that the results might help to bring certain improvements into the existing managerial conception of using real options for investment project evaluation considering the specific nature of investment projects in the oil and gas industry.

There is a growing concern within the resources industry about activists’ use of the legal system to disrupt and delay major projects. Currently, referred to by many as ‘lawfare’, the tactic is not new. However, recent challenges to high profile cases, such as the Adani Carmichael Coal Project, has brought renewed focus to the tactics being used by activists to further their agendas, and a perception at least that the risk to the industry is ever increasing. This paper looks at trends and novel developments in national and international environmental law, and considers what implications this may have for the development of oil and gas projects in Australia.

The competition aggravation in the world oil and gas markets forces the companies to realize projects not only within the country, but also abroad for ensuring competitive advantage. When elaborating of strategies of development and investment programs the oil and gas companies face the need of cost estimation related to participation in international projects. In this article the methodology developed by authors of cost estimation related to participation in international oil and gas projects is presented. Approbation was carried out on the project of Wheatstone LNG production and supply. Application of research results will allow the oil and gas companies to carry out the efficiency assessment of participation in the international projects, and also to reduce time and to increase scientific validity of development of strategy and investment programs.