Oil and gas producer Santos has made a significant new gas discovery in the Browse Basin, adding to the prospect of further developments in the area off the Kimberley coast.
Santos today announced its Crown-1 exploration well, located around 500 kilometres north of Broome, had confirmed 61 metres of net gas pay between 4,873 and 4,998 metres.
The company said drilling would progress to a total depth of 5,200 metres.
Head of exploration Bill Ovendon said the discovery would be important for Santos.
“The Crown discovery is well-positioned, in close proximity to existing and proposed LNG projects in the Browse basin and other material exploration prospects,” Mr Ovendon said.
The company's vice president WA & NT John Anderson said there were no conditions attached to the field, meaning Santos could evaluate a wide range of development options, including a floating LNG plant or piping the gas to Darwin or James Price Point,
Santos holds a 30 per cent stake in the WA-274-P permit, where Crown is located, with joint venture partners Chevron and Inpex holding 50 per cent and 20 per cent interests, respectively.
Meanwhile, Santos' chief executive David Knox says Australia needs to tap into the large pool of foreign skilled labour to meet the planned development of energy projects in the years ahead.
Mr Knox says Australia did not have enough skilled workers for the investment pipeline and therefore had to address the issue of the nation's skills shortage.
"This is not about a push to bring in cheap unskilled workers from overseas," Mr Knox told the Australian Institute of Energy national conference in Sydney on Monday.
"The scale, speed and effort involved in building major projects demand more talent, skills and resources than our population can hope to deliver.
"To successfully address this skills challenge we need to open our minds as a nation and realise that there is no skills shortage if we truly do see ourselves as part of Asia.
"Skills and talent are plentiful in our region, and we are well positioned to take advantage of it.
"We simply have to give ourselves the permission and realise that opening up as a nation has its true advantages."
Mr Knox said the lack of skilled labour, shortage of experienced subcontractors and dearth of specialist suppliers was one of the biggest contributors to cost inflation in Australia.
"Without the right people, projects ultimately experience further delays and increases in costs," Mr Knox said.
Earlier in 2012, the federal government said the Roy Hill iron ore project in Western Australia could hire up to 1,715 skilled workers from overseas if it could not find suitably qualified staff in Australia.
All overseas workers at Roy Hill would be paid exactly the same rates as Australians, Roy Hill said.