DMIRS attends the North American Prospector’s Expo (NAPE) in Houston

Geoscience and Resource Strategy Executive Director Jeff Haworth recently attended the North American Prospector’s Expo (NAPE) to increase exposure of the local State petroleum industry to the large North American players in the onshore and offshore petroleum industry.

“A lot of interest was shown in the recent discoveries of Waitsia and Xanadu in the Perth Basin and how they could get into the Perth Basin,” Mr Haworth said.

The Department of Mines, Industry Regulation and Safety (DMIRS) attended as part of “Australia Petroleum”, the joint government contingent of the Commonwealth, Western Australia, South Australia, Queensland and Northern Territory.

The national delegation hosted a booth in the international prospects section of NAPE and was the key participant in the Australian American Chamber of Commerce (AACC) business seminar on day one of the expo.

The business seminar attracted its largest attendance ever, made up of petroleum exploration and producing companies, oilfield service providers and petroleum investors.

Established in 1993, NAPE is one of the biggest petroleum expos of its kind in the world, and in 2018 attracted more than 12,000 visitors and 700 exhibitors.

“The large attendance was seen by many as ‘cautious optimism’ that is starting to return to the petroleum industry after several turbulent years which has seen the oil price fall from a hundred dollars a barrel in 2012 to lows of forty dollars a barrel to its current price of around sixty dollars a barrel,” Mr Haworth said.

While NAPE has more of an onshore and offshore North American focus, Western Australia was represented by two active players in the Canning Basin of Western Australia, Finder Exploration and Buru Energy.

“The Buru Energy booth and the presence of Finder Petroleum did generate some interest in their prospects by the attendees of NAPE, however the moratorium currently in place on hydraulic fracture stimulation was seen as a negative for investment in Western Australia,” Mr Haworth said.

“Attendees commented that until the findings were finalised and made public they would not be interested in investing in Western Australia at this time.

“Overall, the NAPE 2018 was well attended and interest in Australia has increased from previous years, with all of the Australian contingent agreeing to attend next year.”