Exxon Mobil Corp, the world's biggest publicly traded oil company, plans to study the potential for natural gas discoveries below existing fields off the southeast coast of Australia after adding to resources there in the past two years.
A venture between Exxon and BHP Billiton Ltd found 8.5 billion cubic meters of gas in the Gippsland Basin last year, in addition to 20 billion in 2005, and drilling is continuing, Exxon's Esso Australia Resources Pty unit said yesterday in an e-mailed statement. Exxon hadn't previously released last year's figures.
The Exxon/BHP venture estimates it has more than 20 years of oil production remaining in the Gippsland Basin and more than 30 years of gas production. Continued production from the fields may conflict with a proposal to use depleted fields for the storage of carbon waste from power generation and industrial processes.
"As an indication of our confidence in the substantial gas resource remaining in the basin, we are planning to begin a comprehensive formation evaluation study to look into the untested deeper basin gas potential under our existing fields," Exxon Mobil Australia chairman Mark Nolan said in the statement.
The company can't provide further details on the study, said Rob Young, an Exxon spokesman in Melbourne. The reserves being added show that the fields may not be available for carbon disposal as early as some estimates of 2015, he said.
"We think Gippsland has strong potential for carbon capture and storage, but only when the fields are depleted," Young said.
A signaling system malfunction disrupted high-speed rail (HSR) services beginning at 8am today, with trains temporarily reduced to three northbound and three southbound trains per hour as authorities conduct inspections. The malfunction occurred on a section of track in Miaoli County during pre-operation checks early this morning, forcing northbound and southbound trains to use a single track, the HSR operator said. The regular schedule has been replaced with three hourly trains offering only nonreserved seating in each direction, stopping at every station, it said, adding that business class cars would still have reserved seating. Departures from terminal stations are scheduled at the top
Taiwan is still in the process of assessing the possibility of recruiting workers from Eswatini, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said yesterday, adding that its goal is to help Eswatini upgrade its vocational training centers. If there are plans to recruit workers from Eswatini, safeguarding national security, protecting public health and ensuring the employment rights of Taiwanese would be prerequisites, Department of West Asian and African Affairs Director-General Yen Chia-liang (顏嘉良) told a news conference. Key considerations would also include filling labor shortages in specific industries, and fostering bilateral professional and technical exchanges, he said. Yen was asked about the progress of labor
VERBOSE VESSELS: A CGA cutter and a China Coast Guard exchanged verbal barbs for more than a day in Taiwanese-controlled waters before the Chinese vessel left The Taiwanese and Chinese coast guards had a standoff near the strategically located Pratas Islands (Dongsha Islands, 東沙群島) in the north of the South China Sea, the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) said yesterday. The two sides engaged in intense radio exchanges over sovereignty claims during the 33-hour standoff. China Coast Guard vessel 3501 eventually left the restricted waters, 26.6 nautical miles (49.2km) west of the Pratas Islands, at 5pm yesterday, the CGA said. Lying approximately between southern Taiwan and Hong Kong, the Taiwan-controlled Pratas are seen by some security experts as vulnerable to Chinese attack due to their distance — more than
A US uncrewed surface vessel (USV) encountered multiple Chinese warships during an autonomous transit of the Taiwan Strait, US defense company Seasats said in a statement on Wednesday. Seasats announced that a Lightfish USV had completed the first autonomous transit of the Taiwan Strait. Over five days, the USV traversed the entire length of the Strait while constantly monitoring surface vessel traffic, the company said. The Lightfish encountered multiple Chinese warships, one of which was a Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) Type 056 corvette, it said. The Chinese vessels were operating “well within Taiwan’s exclusive economic zone without transmitting their identity via the
RSS