Australia Nz News

Marine Science students from Curtin University recently partook in a sea voyage from Perth to Hobart, a trip that helped some determine their career paths. Twenty university students were selected from across Australia for CAPSTAN, a national sea-training program run by CSIRO, the University of Tasmania’s Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies, and the Australian and New Zealand International Scientific Drilling Consortium to develop the next generation of marine experts.During 13 days aboard CSIRO’s research vessel (RV) Investigator…

ABL has been awarded a contract by Oil Search (PNG), a subsidiary of Santos, to provide marine warranty survey (MWS) services for Papua New Guinea's first offshore floating storage and offloading (FSO) facility.The work will support the supply, transportation, installation, pre-commissioning and commissioning of the FSO, which will be deployed at the Kumul Marine Terminal as part of the Kutubu Pipeline System.The FSO will provide storage and offloading for crude oil and condensate produced from multiple fields…

DOF Group ASA announced a large contract award for Subsea Construction and Pre Commissioning Support services in the APAC Region.Skandi Inventor will be deployed for the execution of the offshore operations scheduled to commence in Q4 2026 in North Australian waters.The scope of work includes DOF’s in-house project management and engineering, procurement and logistics support services. The duration of the offshore campaign is estimated to be between 160 and 250 days.

Australia's competition regulator said on Friday the proposed merger of energy contractors Subsea7 and Saipem would face a second-phase review over concerns it could reduce competition in key offshore oil and gas services.Here are a few details:The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) said the deal could lessen competition in the supply of certain subsea infrastructure used to connect underwater wells and production systems to surface facilities.The regulator described the services as critical to Australia's offshore oil and gas sector.The decision came a little over a week af

Sydney has completed the rollout of its new Parramatta River Class ferry fleet, with the delivery of the final two vessels enabling the addition of 136 weekly services on the city's Parramatta River route.The final vessels, Norman Selfe and Jack Mundey, were designed by Incat Crowther and built by Richardson Devine Marine in Tasmania for Transport for New South Wales. The seven-vessel fleet carries up to 200 passengers per vessel and primarily serves the route between Parramatta and Circular Quay.According to Transport for NSW…

Norwegian offshore vessel owner DOF has secured a one-year contract extension for its multi-purpose supply vessel (MPSV) Skandi Darwin in Australia.The company said the vessel's current client exercised an extension option that will keep the 2012-built vessel working in Australia until the third quarter of 2027.DOF did not disclose the name of the client or financial terms of the extension.Skandi Darwin is of the MT 6015 MPSV design and is equipped with a multi-application cargo system, with tank capacities dependent on configuration and the products carried.

Crude prices may be back near levels seen before the Iran war, but the surge in oil exports from the Middle East following the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz is creating a chaotic market that could take months to settle.The steep slide in Brent crude LCOc1 back to pre-war levels of around $73 a barrel following the U.S.-Iran interim deal might, at first glance, suggest business as usual has returned to the world’s most important oil and gas hub. The narrow waterway, which once carried about a fifth of global oil and gas…

Oil prices steadied on Monday as Iran and the United States agreed to halt recent hostilities in the Gulf and Middle East producers pushed ahead with loading oil and liquefied natural gas despite fresh ship attacks.The two countries also agreed to renew talks over the Strait of Hormuz, raising hopes of saving an interim peace deal that had been threatened by days of tit-for-tat strikes.Brent crude futures LCOc1 were up 4 cents at $72.03 a barrel by 0803 GMT. U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude CLc1 gained 44 cents, or 0.6%, to $69.67."There's still plenty of risk facing the oil market.

While oil and gas are once again flowing through the Strait of Hormuz, the closure of the vital waterway for over 100 days could prove to be a turning point in global energy markets. The Arab oil embargo of 1973, a similarly disruptive supply shock, offers clues about where we might be headed.The latest Middle East crisis tested the limits of the modern energy system, which has evolved over recent decades into a highly interconnected global market held together by thousands of tankers…

Maritime engineering consultancy BMT and Australian shipbuilder Austal have signed a strategic agreement aimed at expanding ship design and engineering capacity while supporting the delivery of commercial and defense shipbuilding programs.The agreement establishes a framework that allows Austal to access specialist naval architecture and engineering resources as project requirements fluctuate, helping the company manage peak workloads and reduce schedule risks.Under the arrangement…

JERA has received its first liquefied natural gas (LNG) cargo from the Barossa gas project in Australia, marking the start of LNG deliveries from the offshore development to Japan's largest power generation company.The cargo arrived aboard the LNG carrier Sohshu Maru at JERA's Futtsu LNG terminal on June 12, following the start of production from the Barossa project in late 2025.Located offshore Australia's Northern Territory, the Barossa gas field supplies gas to the Darwin LNG facility for processing and export.

Loading of a Taiwan-bound LNG tanker at the Inpex-operated 1605.T Ichthys plant in Australia has been delayed after a limited strike by workers disrupted operations at the terminal, according to the union and shipping data.The delay highlights supply risks from the facility that accounts for about 10% of LNG output in Australia, currently the world's second-largest producer of the super-chilled fuel after the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran damaged facilities in Qatar and drove up…

Oil prices rose more than 3% on Monday after Iran and the U.S. traded strikes and Israel ordered troops to move further into Lebanon in its battle with Tehran-backed Hezbollah.U.S. crude futures CLc1 rose $2.88 or 3.3% to $90.24 a barrel as of 0701 GMT. Brent LCOc1 futures rose $2.78 or 3.05% to $93.9 a barrel.The fighting, after Washington hosted Israel-Lebanon peace talks on Friday, dimmed hopes that the U.S. and Iran could soon announce an extension to their ceasefire, which had driven Brent and WTI to settle down 1.8% and 1.7%, respectively, on Friday.The U.S.

Western Australian premier Roger Cook said on Wednesday he had been "assured" by federal Resources Minister Madeleine King that a new government policy of reserving 20% of gas output for domestic use would not harm his state's large LNG industry."Maddie King is a very good friend of mine, she's my local member of parliament (and) we’ve talked at length about this and she is determined to make sure that it doesn’t have an adverse impact in terms of Western Australia’s established practice…

ABL has been hired to support Esso Australia Resources as preparations advance for what the company described as Australia’s largest offshore decommissioning campaign in the Bass Strait.The Gippsland Decommissioning Campaign #1 Project is expected to involve removal of up to 13 offshore platforms beginning in 2027 using Allseas’ Pioneering Spirit vessel.Esso, a subsidiary of ExxonMobil, operates the Bass Strait assets as part of the Gippsland Basin Joint Venture. The infrastructure includes around 400 wells…

Australia's Santos will prioritise LNG and oil growth in three core regions, including Alaska and Papua New Guinea, under a new strategy that also includes reducing net debt by $2.5 billion by 2030."We are now laser-focused on investment in major oil and LNG production across three regions," CEO Kevin Gallagher said while speaking at the company's 2026 Investor Briefing Day on Tuesday.The country's No.2 oil and gas producer will leverage existing infrastructure on Tier-1 basins in the three regions…

Brent crude futures rose more than 2% on Tuesday after the U.S. military carried out strikes in Iran, keeping markets on edge as a deal to end the war and open up the Strait of Hormuz remained elusive.Brent futures LCOc1 were up $2.36, or 2.5%, to $98.50 a barrel as of 0630 GMT, after settling 7% lower in the previous session.U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude CLc1 was at $91.95 a barrel, up slightly from Monday's last traded price but down $4.65, or 4.8%, from Friday's close. There was no settlement on Monday due to the U.S.

The UAE's new crude pipeline bypassing the Strait of Hormuz is about 50% complete, the head of ADNOC said on Wednesday, adding that global oil flows may take at least four months to recover to 80% of pre-conflict levels after the Iran war ends.Tehran has largely kept the waterway critical for global oil and gas supplies shut to all ships other than its own since U.S.-Israeli strikes on February 28, sending energy prices and inflation surging and fanning fears of an economic downturn.The Abu Dhabi Media Office revealed the existence of the new West-East Pipeline project last week…

Norwegian offshore vessel owner and subsea services provider DOF Group said it has secured a contract for subsea commissioning support services in the Asia-Pacific region, with offshore operations planned in North Australian waters.The company said its vessel Skandi Inventor will be deployed for the campaign, which is scheduled to begin in the second quarter of 2027 and is expected to last between 120 and 180 days.The scope of work includes project management, engineering, procurement…

The U.S. and Israeli war against Iran has changed the global market for liquefied natural gas (LNG), providing a boost to producers outside the Middle East that will likely last long after the current conflict ends.One of the major beneficiaries is Australia, which last year slipped to the third-largest exporter of the super-chilled fuel behind the United States and Qatar.But the effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz has shut off Qatar's LNG exports, meaning that it will likely lose second place back to Australia this year…

Chevron said on Tuesday that downstream assets at its Wheatstone liquefied natural gas plant in Western Australia suffered extensive cyclone damage, leaving both production trains offline.Danny Woodall, Chevron's director of operations and maintenance for Australia, said the two LNG processing trains at the 8.9 million-ton-a-year facility remained shut after Tropical Cyclone Narelle struck the region last week."We have a number of fin fans or air-cooled heat exchangers that sustained some damage," he told the Australian Domestic Gas Outlook conference in Sydney."We've got a dedicated team righ

Gas majors including Shell and Chevron warned Australia against introducing a windfall tax on gas exporters, saying it would deter investment and undermine energy security as LNG prices surge amid disruption caused by the Iran war.Australia became the world's second-largest LNG supplier after Iranian strikes forced Qatar to halt production, with its export revenue set to surge due to lower supply caused by the conflict.Canberra is weighing options to capitalise on the higher prices…

A powerful tropical cyclone in Western Australia has disrupted production at the country’s two biggest liquefied natural gas plants run by Chevron and Woodside, exacerbating a global supply crunch caused by the conflict in the Middle East.Australia became the world’s second-largest LNG exporter after Qatar shut down production this month following damage to its facilities from Iranian strikes. Global LNG flows out of the Middle East have also been upended by Iran’s blockage of…