alan burns starts new company, page-18

The article from Factiva via Murdoch UniversityGENERAL

Peter Briggs given permit to hunt for gas off city's doorstep
ROBERT TAYLOR
451 words
8 August 2006
The West Australian
METRO
9
English
(c) 2006, West Australian Newspapers Limited
Two veteran Perth entrepreneurs, Alan Burns and Peter Briggs, reckon they can solve the impasse between Alan Carpenter and the State's major gas producers by tapping commercial gas fields on Perth's doorstep.

Mr Carpenter is locked in a bitter battle with energy giant Woodside over his plan to quarantine up to 20 per cent of future gas resources for domestic use.

Yesterday, it was revealed the State and Commonwealth governments had agreed to give a local oil minnow, Westralian Gas and Power, exploration rights over 453 square kilometres of ocean floor between Rottnest and Mandurah.

If he has his way, Mr Briggs, the company's executive chairman, will add the sight of oil and gas rigs to the million-dollar views along the coastline south of Rockingham.

The permits, in what is known as the Vlaming sub-basin, were surveyed unsuccessfully in the 1970s and 80s but vastly improved seismic techniques have produced renewed interest in the area.

The results of a Commonwealth geological survey released last year found strong evidence of oil and gas-bearing structures in the sub-basin.

Westralian has promised to spend up to $25 million reviewing the previous seismic data, resurveying and test drilling the permits.

"Better quality seismic work than that done in years gone by, coupled with CSEM (Controlled Source Electro-magnetic Measurements), may be the key to unlocking the areas' fruits," Mr Briggs said yesterday.

Mr Briggs said that any oil and gas found by his company would be sold straight into the domestic market.

"We're not interested in that LNG stuff, because we don't have our own plant," he said. "The lovely thing about this is if you find the gas, it's there.

"When you drill the well and you put it into production, the production is one pipe~ to Perth and you plug it into the Alinta system and away you go. It's not a major exercise...if it's oil you take it down to BP at Kwinana."

"We're not interested in that LNG stuff, because we don't have our own plant," he said.

"The lovely thing about this is if you find the gas, it's there.

"When you drill the well and you put it into production, the production is one pipe to Perth and you plug it into the Alinta system and away you go.

"It's not a major exercise...if it's oil you take it down to BP at Kwinana."

Mr Briggs claimed that if successful, gas could be flowing into the Perth network from the Vlaming basin within three years.

Document TWAU000020060808e2880003o