Exxon Positioned to Pick Up Assets in Australia

MELBOURNE, Australia--The sharp fall in energy prices could open the door for Exxon Mobil Corp. (XOM) to pick up assets in Australia, where the company continues to assess whether to develop deeper gas fields in the Bass Strait.

The company is well position to consider a range of opportunities that might come up, including assets that could be bolted on to existing operations, Richard Owen, the chairman of Exxon's Australian business, said Wednesday.

"It's a very interesting time in Australia because we'll see what happens to a lot of the companies that have taken certain positions based on price and what happens to them," he told reporters in Melbourne.

Mr. Owen said that at the moment gas markets were particularly difficult to "read." All of the energy company's investments needed to be regularly tested against a range of potential price outcomes, he added.

In the Bass Strait off mainland Australia's south coast, where Exxon's Esso unit and BHP Billiton Ltd. (BHP.AU) began drilling in 1965, future gas reservoirs are more expensive to develop since they are smaller, deeper and have higher levels of impurities. That makes any decision on development more dependent on the price for the fuel and on developing technologies, although Mr. Owen said the value of gas had risen over the years the company has been operating in the Strait as global demand has grown.

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