In what would be one of Australia’s largest oil discoveries in decades, U.S. energy company Apache Corp. said an exploration well offshore Western Australia state had found as much as 300 million barrels of crude. The drilling result from the Phoenix South-1 well in the offshore Canning Basin could reopen a frontier for oil exploration that some international energy companies abandoned decades earlier after wells turned up dry. “The oil and reservoir quality we have seen point to a commercial discovery,” said Thomas E. Voytovich, a senior executive at Apache’s international arm. “If these results are borne out by further appraisal drilling, Phoenix South may represent a new oil province for Australia.” Australia is in need of new sources of oil to replace fast diminishing reserves from existing fields. According to BP PLC, Australia’s oil production last year fell by 17% to 416,000 barrels a day—its lowest level […]