ASX-listed Pilot Energy called in administrators on Tuesday, casting doubt on its plans to use the shuttered Cliff Head oil platform off the WA coast for carbon storage. This would leave the Australian Government with a $200 million clean-up bill that it has said will be borne by the oil and gas industry.
However, federal taxpayers may not see any reward for a $6.5 million grant awarded to Pilot to investigate carbon capture technologies.
The voluntary administrators from Cor Cordis will, among other things, revisit a much-delayed deal for Pilot to buy the 79 per cent of Cliff Head it does not own from fellow ASX minnow Triangle Energy.
Pilot has been in a trading halt for more than three months while its board “worked…