Onshore oil & gas activity on the rise in 2011DOWNLOAD |
23 November 2011: Professional services firm Deloitte released its first Drilling and Licensing report this week, covering exploration and appraisal (E&A) drilling, licensing and deal activity in the Australian oil and gas sector during the September quarter.
Stephen Reid, Deloitte’s National Oil & Gas Leader, said there had been an upswing in activity during 2011, with activity already exceeding last year’s results and only just behind the total for 2009.
“There’s still a lot of ground to cover before we get back to the peak levels we experienced prior to the GFC, but we’re definitely seeing an upward trend with onshore activity starting to edge towards the sort of results we were seeing in 2008.”
Mr Reid said the smaller independent players are dominating the onshore space at the moment with Beach Energy owning 1 of the 43 wells spudded this year.
“Unconventionals have dominated onshore drilling and deal activity during the last quarter and we’d expect to see considerably more positive moves in this sector, particularly with Beach Energy’s recent shale gas drilling results in the Cooper Basin.”
Mr Reid said drilling activity in the last two quarters of this year were well up on the first one probably as a result of the floods and cyclones earlier this year.
“We could probably have expected the year’s drilling results to have been significantly higher by this stage if it wasn’t for the spate of natural disasters that hit the east coast in December and January. Activity was down during the first quarter as a result, with a number of rigs stranded and many well-sites inaccessible.”
Offshore drilling activity was dominated by the majors and large independents with a slight drop in levels from the same point in 2010. However, offshore licensing and renewal activity doubled from the previous quarter and was up 250% on the same quarter last year.
Last Updated:
Onshore oil & gas activity on the rise in 2011
(97.96 KB)
Contacts
- Name:
- Eileen Kerrigan
- Company:
- Deloitte
- Job Title:
- Corporate Affairs & Communications
- Phone:
- Tel: +61 3 9671 6910, Mobile: 0412 499 683
- ekerrigan@deloitte.com.au
- Name:
- Stephen Reid
- Company:
- Deloitte Australia
- Job Title:
- Partner, National Mining Leader
- Phone:
- Tel: +61 3 9671 7506
- stereid@deloitte.com.au