Equinor's WA-542-P Permit To Fortify Foothold Down Under

Equinor ASA (NYSE:EQNR) recently announced the receipt of its new exploration permit — WA-542-P —for the Northern Carnarvon Basin, which is located off the coast of Western Australia.

Notably, the block covers roughly 4,815 square kilometers and is situated in water depth ranging between 80 meters and 350 meters. With this permit, Equinor becomes the operator of WA-542-P with full ownership in the west of the recently discovered Dorado oil well. Reportedly, the integrated energy firm has been granted a six-year time permit by Australia’s National Offshore Petroleum Titles Administration (NOPTA).

The operations to be undertaken by Equinor under this acreage comprise seismic data reprocessing, new 3D seismic acquisition plus geological and geophysical studies.

Importantly, this exploration permit, located offshore in the Beagle sub-basin will enable Equinor to expand its presence in Australia.

In a bid to strengthen its operations in Australia, this multinational energy company had opened an office in the country back in 2012, and currently operates the two offshore blocks of EPP39 and EPP40 in the Ceduna Basin.

Earlier this month, Equinor awarded a subsea service contract to Saipem wherein the former will be able to use a drone for wireless underwater intervention and an ROV, thereby making it the first user of such sophisticated technology. The fixed part of this contract is worth 40 million euros. While the contract is secured to last for a decade, it can be extended for another 10 years.

Zacks Rank & Other Key Picks

Equinor carries a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). Other top-ranked players in the energy space include BP (LON:BP) Midstream Partners (NYSE:BPMP) , Magellan Midstream Partners, L.P. (NYSE:MMP) and TransCanada Corporation (TSX:TRP) , each carrying the same solid Zacks Rank as Equinor. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

BP’s earnings beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate in three of the trailing four quarters.

Magellan earnings beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate in three of the previous four quarters.

TransCanada earnings beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate in each of the last four quarters.

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