1. Western Australia - Oil and Gas Outlook APPEX 2008, London
Welcome to Western Australia’s oil and gas outlook presentation.
Stuart Russell
Government of Western Australia – European Office

2. Western Australia’s endowment
2.5 Million Square Kilometers
2 Million Population
1 million Workforce
Diverse Resource-based Economy
The state:
covers 2.5 million square kilometres
has a population of nearly 2 million, with 1.4 million living in the Perth metropolitan area.
This is expressed in square km per person not person per square km. (Joke)
The state is resource-rich, is a major source of commodities, as well as having ever expanding manufacturing and services sectors.
It has world-class facilities and infrastructure
Plus excellent business and investment opportunities
It is a growing knowledge based economy
The city offers a multilingual and multicultural society
Thriving on a politically stable environment

3. Western Australia Resources
“Everyday WA ships out resources worth about US$90 million to Japan, China, South Korea, India and others”
- Those who rule in powerful Perth, 19 August 2006, Australian Financial Review.
Approximately AUD$100 million at the current exchange rate.
The significance of WA’s performance is well recognised.
This is an example of media recognition of the significant size and;
significant markets surfaced from WA (Powers and Economies of Asia Pacific Region).

4. 2007 Export Value
The value of Western Australia’s petroleum exports in 2007 was Australian $10 billion, with over half of that value in liquids.

5. Australia has about 2% of the world’s gas reserves, with Western Australia having the lion’s share of these.
There has recently been a big shift in perception, with gas no longer considered a second prize.
Although much of WA’s gas reserves have been considered to be “stranded”, several major projects are moving towards commercialisation, and recent acreage releases that were considered prospective for gas have received highly competitive work program bids.
WA continues to discover 1 to 2 world class gas fields per year. Unlike the mature North Sea and the USA, WA gas reserves continue to grow.
There is a looming domestic gas shortage in WA, as increased production is not expected to meet significant increases in demand.
This potential shortage has led to recent gas contracts rising to about world parity prices.

6. Western Australia –Gas Production Forecast
As indicated in this figure exploration is yet to mature and gas production is forecasted to continue growing for a significant period into the future.
This figure is based on both discovered and undiscovered fields.
Potential new discoveries offer the opportunity to sustain and or grow the gas production beyond the levels and time frames forecast in this graph.

7. Bonaparte Basin Frontier
Canning Basin Lennard Shelf oil
Canning Basin Frontiers
Carnarvon Basin gas
Officer and Amadeus Basin Frontiers
There are a number of onshore basins in Western Australia, shown in pale blue.
Production has come from the Perth, Carnarvon and Canning Basins.
However, much of the State is frontier acreage.
There was a recent acreage release for a tight gas field in the Perth Basin, due to industry interest in this type of resource.
Perth Basin oil and gas

8. WA Upstream Petroleum Industry 2007
Exploration drilling (New Field Wildcats) Offshore Onshore Bonaparte Browse Canning Carnarvon Perth
Total
Trend to deeper water drilling in Browse and outer Carnarvon
Strong response to gazettals:
Offshore Onshore
2007 EP’s granted
WA continues to record increasing numbers of wildcat drilling offshore, with significant drilling in the Browse Basin last year.
Onshore drilling remains at low levels, but with an increase in drilling in the Canning Basin.
A total of 25 new exploration permits were granted last year.

9. Petroleum Exploration Expenditure Western Australia
(2006 dollars)
WA expenditure ($ million)
WA% of Australian Total
As you can see in this graph, petroleum exploration expenditure in WA has doubled from Australian $594 million in to $1,481 million in
The percentage of WA’s exploration expenditure out of Australia’s total is shown in blue and is typically about 60% and increasing.

10. New Field Wildcats & Significant Discoveries WA 1993 - 2007
Total Number Wells
Significant Discoveries %
46 wildcats were drilled in 2007, resulting in 4 significant discoveries:
Julimar and Thebe gas fields in the Carnarvon Basin, and Frankland gas Drakea oil and gas fields Perth Basin.
The wildcat success rate in WA remains at good levels, with significant discoveries being either a large new field, or the discovery of either oil or gas in a new play.
Year
Year

11. 3D seismic acquisition remains at healthy levels, with multi-client “speculative” surveys in blue, and permit surveys in red.

12. Total Australian Exploration Commitments
Cumulative six year forward exploration commitments
as at the beginning of each year
This graph shows the forward commitments for exploration wells in light blue, recalculated annually, and shows that the commitments for new permits or permit renewals have increasing numbers of wells. The associated indicative expenditure is shown in dark blue.
In 2007 there are forward commitments of Australian $4 Billion, including 372 exploration wells.

13. Development
Huge amount of upstream development planned and under construction - $10 billion
Six oil developments
Eleven gas developments
Including downstream LNG, pipeline and GTL projects, total development value increases to over $55 billion.
A total of 68 fields recorded production in 2007, up from 63 fields in 2006.
New fields on production in 2007 include Stybarrow/Eskdale (oil/gas), Searipple (gas/condensate), Doric (gas/condensate), Lee (gas/cond), West Cycad (oil/gas/condensate) and Apium (gas/condensate). New fields actively under development in 2007 include Angel (gas) and Vincent (oil). Producing fields with major drilling include Perseus over Goodwyn and Barrow Island.

14. This map shows the Federal acreage releases, all offshore, and the State onshore and State Waters releases. The red permits have just closed, and Mark Stevens will be talking about the grey coloured acreage releases on Friday morning, which will be formally gazetted on 8th April.
The 44 acreage releases still current have sizes varying from 160 to 8,000 square km, or 40,000 to 2 million acres.
These acreage release areas may look small, but total 226,544 square kilometers, which is almost twice the area of England.
(Note: England 130,433 km2, therefore 1.74 times this.)

15. Western Australia State Bid Round Petroleum
To be released:
8 April 2008
Bids close:
2 October 2008
Basins
Canning
Northern Carnarvon
Perth
The upcoming acreage release will include 3 basins – the Canning, Northern Carnarvon and Perth Basins.
The closing date is 2 October Data on this acreage release will be available on the Department’s website by mid-April.
There is a domestic gas shortage in Western Australia and as the oil price remains high, exploration is made more worthwhile.

16. Further Information Visit Website International Pavilion, Booth 37
APPEX, 7 March, Session Prospect Forum
Western Australia – ‘Onshore & State Waters Acreage Release’ presentation, Mark Stevens Western Australia
Website
then
minerals and petroleum > petroleum exploration > acreage releases
The 8 April 2008 acreage release to be on website by mid – April 2008
Further information may be obtained from Western Australia’s booth in the Exhibition area, or you may like to visit the Department’s website.
Mark Stevens will be talking here at APPEX on Friday morning about WA’s latest acreage releases.