Oil and Gas Sector

Mr VAN HOLST PELLEKAAN (Stuart) (15:15): My question is to the Minister for Mineral Resources and Energy. Given the minister's comments yesterday regarding the leadership of Ambassador Exploration and Ambassador Oil and Gas and what he characterised as positive business arrangements which transferred the rights of petroleum exploration licence 570 through successive corporate agreements, is he aware of the Australian government Takeovers Panel's findings against these directors?

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS (West Torrens—Treasurer, Minister for Finance, Minister for State Development, Minister for Mineral Resources and Energy, Minister for Small Business) (15:15): Mr Speaker, yesterday the member for Stuart asked me a series of questions regarding the granting of a petroleum exploration licence to Ambassador Exploration, which is now a subsidiary of Drillsearch. He referred to a number of documents that he received via a freedom of information application and questioned the process conducted to assess the bids for the licence and the process by which the variation of the licence was granted.

Bids for petroleum exploration licences under this government are assessed independently of the minister by a bid team, which is now the Department of State Development, but at the time was the department of primary industry and resources. As has been stated, a number of criteria were used to assess the bids, one of which was the 'adequacy of the financial resources and the technical expertise available to the applicant'. During the assessment period, the bid team often seeks further information from bidders to allow a detailed assessment to occur. In this case, Ambassador, whose work program was scored higher than all the other PEL applications based on work program criteria, was asked to provide further information about their financial resources. This was provided to the satisfaction of the bid team. In terms of financial capability, Ambassador's key personnel have demonstrated experience—

Mr VAN HOLST PELLEKAAN: Point of order.

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: No, I'm getting to that. I'm getting to that point as well.

Mr VAN HOLST PELLEKAAN: The question was about the Australian government Takeovers Panel's finding.

The SPEAKER: Could the minister come to the substance?

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: Sir, I just thought I'd take the opportunity to answer some of the questions from yesterday as well.

The SPEAKER: Well, that isn't contemplated by standing orders.

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: In terms of Ambassador's key personnel, they had to demonstrate experience in raising capital in respect to the oil and gas sector at a time when the share markets were relatively receptive to upstream petroleum capital raising. In terms of the technical capacity, Ambassador Exploration was represented by Mr Guglielmo, who had many years prior extensive experience in the oil and gas sector, including 20 years at very senior levels with Santos and Stuart Petroleum. Further, John Davidson, as I said earlier, had 25 years experience at senior levels at Exxon. In regard to variations permitted in the licence conditions after Ambassador Exploration had been granted PEL570, I can inform the house that the variations enabled the licensee to optimise its work program whilst sustaining its work program above other bids for PEL570.

To the question that the shadow minister asks, I have full confidence in my officials. I have full confidence in their ability to understand how to work with the industry without compromising their integrity. I have detailed as many answers as I possibly can.

Ms Chapman interjecting:

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: Whatever the findings of any external panel are, I have full confidence in the bid team that assessed the bid. If the opposition have any evidence, anything that brings into doubt the capability of the bid team, table it and provide it.

The SPEAKER: Supplementary, member for Stuart.