Norwegian oil and gas company Equinor said Tuesday it will discontinue exploration in the Great Australian Bight off the country’s southern coast after deciding the program was “not commercially competitive.” Receive daily email alerts, subscriber notes & personalize your experience. Register Now Market sources said the move will curb frontier oil and gas development in Australia, which became the world’s largest LNG exporter in 2019 but grapples with domestic fuel shortages and imports transportation fuels from refining hubs like Singapore. It also highlights challenges faced by international oil companies in conducting exploration work in environmentally-sensitive areas in the midst of intensifying climate change protests and low oil prices that make expensive drilling unfeasible. Equinor, formerly known as Statoil, said its Stromlo-1 drilling plan in the Ceduna sub-basin offshore the state of South Australia was not commercially competitive when compared with other exploration opportunities in its global portfolio. […]