Worley awarded Santos contract, severe weather impacts Costa Group harvest, and Beach Energy completes Otway program
Worley will provide FEED services for Santos’ Bayu-Undan CCS project, which is expected to store up to 10Mt of carbon dioxide a year.
Santos (ASX: STO) has awarded Worley (ASX: WOR) a professional services contract to help guide its Bayu-Undan carbon capture and storage (CCS) project.
Worley will provide front-end engineering and design (FEED) services for the offshore Bayu-Undan CCS project, which is located in the Timor Sea.
It is expected up to 10 million tonnes of carbon dioxide per annum will be stored by the project – equivalent to about 1.5% of Australia’s annual carbon emissions.
According to Worley, Santo’s Bayu-Undan CCS has the potential to be one of the largest projects of its kind in the world, helping the transition to a zero-carbon future.
Worley chief executive officer Chris Ashton said the company is looking forward to working with Santos and helping to strive for a more sustainable future.
“This project is one of the ways we are helping our customers to decarbonise and repurpose existing assets as we deliver a more sustainable world,” he said.
Woodside Energy
Woodside Energy (ASX: WDS) announced on Monday its plan to invest US$10 million (A$14.8 million) in Indian award-winning greenhouse gas recycling firm String Bio.
The investment aligns with Woodside’s goal to spend $5 billion on new energy and low-carbon services by 2030, to help aid the global push for cleaner energy.
Australia’s largest oil company will explore using the Indian company’s technology to support its decarbonisation efforts.
Woodside chief executive officer Meg O’Neill said the company strives to build a diverse portfolio during the global energy transition phase.
“Our investment in String Bio builds on our ability to potentially abate greenhouse gases through the conversion of carbon into useful products,” she said.
“We believe String Bio’s technology could eventually be used to recycle methane at Woodside facilities.”
“It could also be deployed at third-party sites with available biomethane such as landfill facilities and farms,” she added.
String Bio chief executive officer Dr Ezhil Subbian said the partnership is encouraging for all involved.
“With the Woodside collaboration, we are taking a positive step to bring such solutions to market, solutions that are better for people and the planet,” she said.
Origin Energy
Rent.com.au (ASX: RNT) has secured a strategic partnership with giant Origin Energy (ASX: ORG) to offer electricity and gas services to customers.
The partnership will make Origin the exclusive electricity and gas provider to the Rent group.
Origin’s services will be incorporated into Rent’s existing RentConnect product and offer customers a ‘bill smoothing’ product through its RentPay service.
Customers will be able to utilise the bill smoothing service, which provides an option to pay some bills on a frequent, regular basis to help alleviate cost surprises.
As part of the deal, Rent will receive commission when customers sign up for Origin’s electricity or gas plans or a customer makes payments towards its Origin energy bills using the bill smoothing feature.
The contract will last an initial 24 months, with the option to extend for another 12 months.
Rent chief executive officer Greg Bader said the opportunity was extremely exciting for the company.
“Not only is Origin one of the largest electricity and gas retailers in the country, powering millions of households, but importantly for us they recognise and value the uniqueness of our renting community,” he said.
Beach Energy
Beach Energy (ASX: BPT) has completed its Otway basin drilling campaign, the company’s first extended offshore drilling campaign, safely, on schedule and on budget.
Commencing in 2021, the campaign recorded one new gas discovery at the Artisan field as well as six successful development wells in the Geographe and Thylacine fields.
The Otway basin, an onshore and offshore basin, extends roughly 500km from Cape Jaffa in South Australia to northwest Tasmania.
Beach Energy chief executive officer Morné Engelbrecht said the campaign was a timely and significant achievement for all involved.
“I thank all our stakeholders for their commitment over many years – our dedicated team at Beach, the communities in which we operate, regulators, our drilling partner Diamond Offshore Drilling and our joint venture partner OG Energy,” he said.
“The collective effort has seen Beach deliver new gas at a time when it is desperately needed.”
The success of the Otway program will provide much needed gas to many homes and business.
Mr Engelbrecht said the Otway basin drilling campaign is a key building block and milestone to delivering a production target of 28MMboe from FY2024.
Costa Group
One of Australia’s leading food and vegetable producers Costa Group (ASX: CGC) has warned the quality of its citrus products in some regions have been impacted by recent severe weather events.
A brief market update was released by the company after its share price suffered a significant blow on Monday; however, Costa has reassured its shareholders it is too soon to quantify the financial impact.
The weather events are said to have impacted Costa’s produce at its Riverland and Sunraysia crops.
Costa will release its H1 CY2022 results next month, with the company saying they are expected to be in line with expectations.
“Ahead of the release of half year results, Costa notes its operations performed well in first half of the 2022 financial year and unaudited results,” it said.
Considering the timing, the full effects of the impacted harvest will only be recognised in the second half of its fiscal year which ends in December.