Geopolitical uncertainty continued in 2025 with the continuation of the war in Ukraine, Israeli actions in the Gaza strip, and the election of Donald Trump as president of the USA for the second time. The Petroleum Exploration Society of Australia 2025 Production and Development Year in Review looks back at the oil and gas development and production activities in Australia in 2025 and tries to provide some sense of what happened and what that means for the industry looking forward. We also cannot ignore the recent (2026) events in the Middle East which have significantly changed the outlook for global energy supplies. Liquefied natural gas (LNG) production in Australia remained high with declining production from the North-West Shelf Venture offset by increased production from Gorgon, Ichthys, and Prelude. Santos announced first gas into the Barossa floating production, storage, and offloading (FPSO) vessel in late September, although the first LNG cargo from the re-opened Darwin LNG plant wasn’t loaded until January 2026. The Scarborough project development continued into installation activities and Woodside confirmed that it should start up before the end of 2026. Strike Energy’s peaking power plant is also due to start-up in 2026, and Tamboran and Beetaloo Energy both announced new pilot project developments in the Beetaloo aiming at start-up in 2026. The east coast domestic market continues to have major concerns about (future) gas supply, and gas supply remains a critical issue in the Northern Territory.
Martin Wilkes (2026) studied this question.