Generic Hero BannerGeneric Hero Banner
Latest Market News

Australia’s QPM hikes gas reserves estimate

  • Spanish Market: Natural gas
  • 29/04/24

The energy arm of Australian battery metals firm Queensland Pacific Metals (QPM) has announced its certified reserves have increased more than a third on previous estimates at its Moranbah gas project (MGP) in Queensland state.

QPM Energy (QPME) reported a 38pc increase in its total proven and probable (2P) gas reserves to 331PJ (8.8bn m³) on 29 April compared with a March 2022 estimate of 240PJ, as it pivots towards its energy business and pauses spending on its proposed Townsville Energy Chemicals Hub (TECH) project.

QPME's waste coal mine gas reserves will be developed along with 300MW of new gas-fired power generation at the firm's Moranbah facilities located in the Bowen basin, a metallurgical and thermal coal producing region. The company is also planning to build compressed natural gas and micro-LNG facilities to distribute gas to northern Queensland customers.

The company will seek to increase its output by 25pc to 35 TJ/d (935,000 m³/d) by late 2024, up from October-December 2023's average of 28 TJ/d by drilling a further seven wells by the year's end. A rig has arrived on site for drilling the first well of its Teviot Brook South Well programme, QPM said on 24 April.

Australian independent Blue Energy, which is developing the Sapphire pilot project with 59PJ of 2P reserves near MGP, said QPM has confirmed it intends on taking gas Blue makes available to the MGP, in line with an existing non-binding agreement signed in June last year. Blue and QPME's parent company QPM also have a separate non-binding deal for supply of 7 PJ/yr of gas over 15 years to the TECH project.


Related news posts

Argus illuminates the markets by putting a lens on the areas that matter most to you. The market news and commentary we publish reveals vital insights that enable you to make stronger, well-informed decisions. Explore a selection of news stories related to this one.

US oil chiefs wary of Trump price push


17/03/25
17/03/25

US oil chiefs wary of Trump price push

New York, 17 March (Argus) — US oil chiefs have offered President Donald Trump their unequivocal backing for restarting the conversation around energy policy and climate change in their favour, but his push for lower oil prices is creating misgivings. Energy secretary Chris Wright told reporters at the CERAWeek by S&P Global conference in Houston last week that the administration's push for lower oil prices has no specific target level, but White House officials, including trade adviser Peter Navarro, have cited $50/bl as a preferred level that would help to bring down inflation. A decline to that level would have far-reaching repercussions for the shale patch and lead to lower production in the top-performing Permian basin, according to industry veteran Scott Sheffield. "The cash breakeven for the majors and independents is $50-55/bl including dividends," said Sheffield, one of the pioneers of the shale revolution in the Permian basin that turned the US into the world's biggest producer. "So at $50/bl oil, there's no free cash flow, there's no growth." Wright attempted to square the circle between Trump's call for lower crude prices and higher crude production at the same time, arguing that both goals could be achieved by removing barriers and developing more infrastructure under a strategy of "Build, baby, build". Executives from the US and European majors talked up prospects in the offshore Gulf of Mexico, which is enjoying a resurgence in interest as pioneering technology opens up previously inaccessible resources. But the industry needs to work with the administration to explain the unintended consequences of its tariff policies, pipe manufacturer Tenaris said, as they affect equipment used for deepwater development. In the shale, with most public operators pledging to keep spending down this year and growth to a minimum, few have thus far shown any appetite to open the floodgates. US major Chevron might forecast double-digit output growth from its Permian operations this year, but it is slowing its spending. "Chasing growth for growth's sake has not proven to be particularly successful for our industry," chief executive Mike Wirth said. "And so we're moving towards a plateau that will open up the free cash flow generation and then sustain that for a long period of time." Tech flows Consolidation has helped to improve financial performance and efficiency of the larger operators now dominating the Permian, giving them the ability to drive technology gains and improve recovery rates, according to ExxonMobil's new head of oil and gas production, Dan Ammann. "When you have a position like ours — with continuous acreage — it allows you to do things that others are unable to do, like very long laterals," he told the conference. "Today we are recovering 6-8pc of the total resource, so the ability to unlock increased recovery of that through technology is a great way to grow production." Occidental Petroleum's chief executive, Vicki Hollub , is advocating the use of enhanced oil recovery techniques with CO2 pulled in by direct air capture facilities — which remove CO2 from the atmosphere — like the projects Occidental is developing. Pilot tests in the Midland basin suggest the company could double recovery rates using this technique for shale, Hollub said. And even though growth in shale output looks set to reach a plateau by the end of the decade, industry leaders voiced optimism that its decline will be slow and future drilling breakthroughs, possibly driven by artificial intelligence, could yet prolong its lifespan. "Never bet against this industry in terms of technology," ConocoPhillips' chief executive, Ryan Lance, warned. "It will always figure out a way to get more resource out of the rock." By Stephen Cunningham US tight oil production Send comments and request more information at feedback@argusmedia.com Copyright © 2025. Argus Media group . All rights reserved.

Oil industry embraces Trump trade-offs


17/03/25
17/03/25

Oil industry embraces Trump trade-offs

Washington, 17 March (Argus) — President Donald Trump's key energy advisers lavished praise and promises of deregulation on US oil and gas executives attending the CERAWeek by S&P Global conference in Houston last week. But his domestic and international policies, and failure to explain their desired outcomes, have created significant uncertainty for investors in the energy sector and the broader economy. "I'm going to share two words that I don't think you have heard from a federal official in [former president Joe Biden's] administration during the last four years, and those two words are ‘Thank you'," interior secretary Doug Burgum told the conference. Burgum, appointed by Trump as chairman of a newly formed National Energy Dominance Council, projects that cutting oil and gas regulations and streamline permitting could trim $6-8/bl from US oil production costs. Burgum's assessment of the savings that the regulatory overhaul would yield is a way to reconcile Trump's demands on the industry to lower oil prices and at the same time push US crude output beyond what are already record levels. Trump on 12 March celebrated oil prices falling to $65/bl as another major win — even though Nymex sweet crude futures were closer to $70/bl that day — and some members of his economic team are eyeing the $50/bl mark . His energy team says it does not have a specific price target, but "the actions of this administration are to make it easier to produce more oil and natural gas" and encourage producers to invest more, energy secretary Chris Wright told the CERAWeek conference. Oil and gas executives for now appear grateful to be embraced by the White House, and attribute government interventions on trade and other fronts to the initial exuberance of a new administration. Wright's denunciation of what he called Biden's "irrational, quasi-religious climate policies" was well received and set the tone for the conference. Even Adnoc chief executive Sultan al-Jaber , who just two years ago labelled his fellow oil executives' view on climate change as problematic, recast the problem and pronounced it to be solved. "The world is finally waking up to the fact that energy is the solution," al-Jaber said. Permitting pay-offs later... But concerns about new sources of regulatory uncertainty are starting to mount. Approving specific pipeline and other energy projects by executive fiat needs to be backed by legislation that makes permitting reform possible, Chevron chief executive Mike Wirth told the conference. And Trump is making it increasingly difficult to pass off his tariff policies as a mere negotiating tactic. His trade actions are proving to be sticky — even the temporary relief for Canada tariffs has forced market participants to scramble to prove that the energy trade is covered by the US-Canada-Mexico free trade agreement terms and is thus tariff-free, Alberta's minister of energy and minerals, Brian Jean, said. OECD energy watchdog the IEA on 13 March downgraded its global oil demand growth forecast for 2025, noting a deterioration in macroeconomic conditions driven by rising trade tensions. The agency envisages a larger supply surplus as a result — a surplus that could be greater still, depending on Opec+ policy. The Trump administration casts its declaration of an "energy emergency" as the best way to address long-standing complaints across the energy industry about the lengthy permitting process and multiple layers of federal and state-level oversight. "We will identify where the overlap is, we will identify where the overreach is... then we're going to help solve the problem and identify what else we can just get rid of in the federal government," Burgum told the conference. But he and other administration officials have already indicated that they expect the main beneficiaries to be the oil, gas and coal industries, making it easier to expand production, authorise pipelines and approve new coal and gas-fired power plants, and to even force coal-fired plants that have already been mothballed to reopen. The Environmental Protection Agency on 12 March said it will revise more than 30 climate regulations that were issued under Biden, including CO2 limits for power plants and automobiles, national air quality standards and methane limits for the oil and gas sector. Midstream company Williams' chief executive, Alan Armstrong, said that the permitting shortcuts outlined by the Trump administration would more than offset the higher cost of steel used in pipes as a result of new tariffs . Armstrong, who estimates permitting costs to be twice as high as the cost of pipeline materials, said that "we'd be glad to pay the 25pc tariffs as long as we can get the permits done". He also said he is hopeful that durable legislation relaxing infrastructure permitting rules will be passed under the new administration. But industry group American Petroleum Institute president Mike Sommers, while praising Trump's deregulation agenda, offered a more sober outlook on the possibility of a long-discussed overhaul of federal permitting through federal legislation. Congress' failed effort to amend permitting laws last year "should be the basis upon which all other permitting bills are built", Sommers said. But, he cautioned, "we all have to be realistic about the partisan make-up of Congress and the difficulty of getting 60 votes" in the Senate, where the Republican majority is 53-47. The new gas-fired power plants and nuclear power investment that Trump wants might prove insufficient for meeting surging US power demand for artificial intelligence (AI) data centres this decade, US utility NextEra chief executive John Ketchum said, noting his company's continued preference for adding renewable generation. "There's a timing difference… and there's a cost difference" between renewables and other generation sources, Ketchum said, noting that the cost of new gas-fired generation has more than tripled since 2022. ...uncertainty now Oil and gas producers might feel reinvigorated by Trump's promise of deregulation, but energy traders say that his unpredictable actions on tariffs, foreign affairs and the economy are creating volatility in futures markets at a time of increased concern about the stability of investments made in the US. The Chicago Board Options Exchange's VIX volatility index — which uses options trades to track the likelihood of major stock market swings — has nearly doubled since Trump took office and hit a seven-month high last week. The pace and breadth of Trump's agenda are "surprising even his most ardent supporters" and resulting in markets having "mixed feelings" over his policies, Futures Industry Association president Walt Lukken said on 10 March at the International Futures Industry Conference in Boca Raton, Florida. Lukken cited a recent survey of the industry group's members, which identified tariffs as the policy that could most negatively affect markets. Trump's oft-repeated stated desires to annex Greenland and Canada and his willingness to allow Tesla chief executive Elon Musk to exert vast power in his administration without a clear conflict-of-interest policy have helped to further rattle investor confidence, European exchange Euronext's chief executive, Stephane Boujnah, said. US assets could start trading at a discount because of concerns over the rule of law and an "oligarch risk" that more usually exists in emerging markets, he said. "One of the features of the emerging market is that you invest, you own something, until the guy with gold who is close to the ruler wants it too," Boujnah said. By Haik Gugarats, Julian Hast and Chris Knight Send comments and request more information at feedback@argusmedia.com Copyright © 2025. Argus Media group . All rights reserved.

China’s CNOOC starts Caofeidian, Wenchang crude output


17/03/25
17/03/25

China’s CNOOC starts Caofeidian, Wenchang crude output

San Francisco, 16 March (Argus) — Chinese state-controlled CNOOC has started output at the Caofeidian 6-4 oil field comprehensive adjustment project and the Wenchang 19-1 oil field phase 2 project offshore China, the company said today. Caofeidian 6-4 produces mainly light crude and is located in the western part of the Bohai Sea, at an average water depth of about 20m. Wenchang 19-1 produces mainly medium crude and is located in the western part of the Pearl River Mouth Basin, at an average water depth of around 125m. Caofeidian 6-4 is expected to achieve peak production of around 11,000 b/d of oil equivalent (boe/d) in 2026 and Wenchang 19-1's output is expected to peak at 12,000 boe/d in 2027. CNOOC plans to put into production a total of 38 development wells at the two projects. It is also planning 22 production wells at Caofeidian 6-4. CNOOC is the operator of the projects and holds a 100pc interest. The associated gas of Caofeidian 6-4 will be reinjected into the reservoir with gas injection compressors, which will reduce CO2 emissions by about 13,000 t/yr. Wenchang 19-1 uses a megawatt-level high-temperature flue gas ORC power generation unit, which is expected to generate up to 24GWh of electricity and reduce CO2 emissions by about 23,000 t/yr, CNOOC said. The company has mainly started output at oil fields in 2025 but said in early March that it made a "major breakthrough" in natural gas exploration as part of a gas discovery at the Weizhou 10-5 oil and gas field at a water depth of 37m in the Beibu Gulf basin in the Bohai sea, with test results indicating production capacity of around 13.2mn ft³ of gas and about 800 b/d of crude. Send comments and request more information at feedback@argusmedia.com Copyright © 2025. Argus Media group . All rights reserved.

US gas producers gear up for return to growth


12/03/25
12/03/25

US gas producers gear up for return to growth

Firms have changed their tune since the start of the winter, as weather-related factors have increased the appeal of boosting output, writes Julian Hast New York, 12 March (Argus) — Some large US natural gas-focused producers plan to boost their output in the coming years, in response to higher prices and booming US LNG export capacity. This would reverse a years-long trend among US producers of holding output steady to avoid oversupply, which drags down prices. The largest producer of US gas by volume, Expand Energy, aims to lift production by 3.4pc from last year to 7.1bn ft³/d (201mn m³/d) in 2025 and to boost drilling to bring on line 300mn ft³/d of sidelined production capacity that could hit the market in 2026. Fellow US gas producer Comstock Resources plans to add drilling rigs in the Haynesville shale of east Texas and northern Louisiana this year in a bid to offset output declines triggered by low prices in 2024 and bring new output on line when needed. US firm Range Resources, which operates in the Appalachian region, expects to boost production by 19pc from 2024 to 2.6bn ft³/d by 2027, with most of this growth set to take place in 2026-27, when the majority of the planned new LNG export terminals on the US Gulf coast are slated to begin operations. Range's sharp upward growth trajectory represents a break from its recent past, given that its 2024 output was just 2.5pc higher than in 2020. US gas producers appear poised to raise output by about 2bn ft³/d combined over the next 12-24 months, to refill inventories that have been depleted by a cold 2024-25 winter season and to keep up with booming LNG exports, according to investment bank RBC Capital Markets. But if every US gas producer grows at same the rate that Range Resources envisages, "the macro backdrop could quickly deteriorate", US bank Tudor Pickering Holt said in a note to clients last month. US gas inventories were at an 80bn ft³ deficit to the five-year average at the end of February, compared with a 215bn ft³ surplus on 1 November, according to US government agency the EIA. US gas prices now have now climbed above the marginal breakeven price of the industry, Expand Energy chief executive Nick Dell'Osso says, putting the US breakeven US gas price at about $3.50/mn Btu. This means "supply will ultimately show up and compete", he says. Expand Energy and fellow US producer EQT, which made the same estimation of the industry breakeven price early last year, say their own breakeven figures are lower because of their ample acreage in the Marcellus and Utica shale formations of Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia, where production costs are lower. Nymex gas futures prices at the US benchmark Henry Hub in Louisiana for delivery in 2026 settled at $4.38/mn Btu on 7 March, up from $3.91/mn Btu at the start of this year. Fair-weather friend The recent growth plans of US producers stand in contrast with many producers' reluctance to boost output earlier this winter, in response to weather-driven shifts in supply and demand. "You don't want to grow for a season" but rather "grow for something that is durable over several years", Dell'Osso said in January. And the production plans of gas-focused firms may end up being overshadowed by those of crude-focused players in the Permian basin of west Texas and southeast New Mexico. These are set to remain the main drivers of production growth in the coming months, thanks to new gas pipeline infrastructure connecting associated gas supply to end markets near the US Gulf coast. Total US marketed gas production is forecast to increase to 114.7bn ft³/d this year and 117.9bn ft³/d in 2026, from 113.1bn ft³/d in 2024, the EIA says. Permian basin output is expected to account for 75pc, or 3.6bn ft³/d, of the additional production by 2026, with output from the basin increasing by 7pc/yr in 2025-26. This would be slower than the 14pc/yr recorded in 2022-24 but would still make it the US' fastest-growing production area. Send comments and request more information at feedback@argusmedia.com Copyright © 2025. Argus Media group . All rights reserved.

Generic Hero Banner

Business intelligence reports

Get concise, trustworthy and unbiased analysis of the latest trends and developments in oil and energy markets. These reports are specially created for decision makers who don’t have time to track markets day-by-day, minute-by-minute.

Learn more