However Talon said the two had killed the agreement after the Department for Energy and Mining informed them that a cash deposit equal to the remediation work needed had to be paid up front. This changed the cost structure of a carbon capture and storage project it had been planning. 

 

Strike had planned to release its interest in the project in PEL96 in August last year to Talon subsidiary Green Flame Energy. 

 

Strike holds 66.67% in the deep coal asset, which was once its flagship project, which it shares with Energy World Corp. The company worked on the project through to 2019, but never managed to get it off the ground, leaving a gas supply agreement with explosives maker Orica to fall over. 

 

The asset changeover was for a nominal fee but Talon was to take on all decommissioning costs. Talon's plan was to test out a new type of carbon capture and storage in coal seams, as opposed to the more traditional depleted reservoirs being pursued by Santos and Beach in the Cooper. 

 

The National Offshore Petroleum Titles Administrator has been given increased powers to oversee asset transfers and make sure companies are able to meet all work program and liability costs. However it seems that states are now taking the same tack. 

 

In Western Australia New Standard Energy left a series of wells in the Canning Basin unremediated some years ago, and with no cash, has never been able to return. 

 

Talon and Strike partner in the Perth Basin at the Walyering project, where they recently drilled the successful Walyering-5 target in the Cattamarra coal measures at Jurassic level. Talon also has an option to farm into Strike's proximate Ocean Hill acreage. 

 

Strike's latest quarterly notes it still holds the acreage, but ascribes no cash value to remediation nor notes the end of the deal with its partner.