Matt Mckenzie

Marine services providers won’t be knocked off course by the waves of change in the oil and gas industry.

Software company Stochastic Simulation has joined a growing list of Western Australian businesses kicking goals globally in oil and gas technology development, as local providers increasingly target opportunities offshore.

As the construction peak passes and the oil price slides, service providers to the energy industry are re-evaluating how they do business. See our special report to see how technology, marine logistics and equipment providers are adapting to the new climate, and read about changes in the industry's workforce.

Is it any wonder the sound of leather on willow brings us such joy?

Woodside Petroleum has been forced to halt production at its Pluto LNG plant in the Carnarvon Basin after a cyclone detached a nearby drilling rig.

Matching the right talent with the right business culture is all in a day’s work for Kelly Quirk.

When your next inflight meal arrives fresh and on time, you’ve got Salim Hazife and his team to thank.

Western Australian farmers are projected to enjoy the highest rate of return in the nation, excluding capital appreciation, for 2014-15, according to the Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics and Sciences.

State upper house member Rick Mazza has taken a leading role in the debate about the state’s potato bureaucracy, the Potato Marketing Corporation.

More Western Australians were employed in February than ever before, according to the latest data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics, but that was not enough to stop a 0.2 per cent rise in the state’s unemployment rate to 5.8 per cent.

Australian employees of oil and gas service provider Wood Group PSN can expect a salary freeze while contractors will experience rate reductions, a move the company said was in response to cost and efficiency challenges affecting the sector.

Oil and gas modelling software provider Stochastic Simulation has entered into a $5 million deal to acquire modelling technology from Predrill Stresses International.

West Perth- based explorer Sheffield Resources will sell its Oxley potash project, near Geraldton, to South Australian Centrex Metals for $2.5 million.

The annual cost to small business owners of complying with the GST is upwards of $13 billion, according to a recent survey, adding to calls for the federal government to address business taxation in its tax review white paper this year.

Listed companies from Western Australia are on the outer in the most recent quarterly reshuffle of the S&P Dow Jones ASX Indices, with high-profile absentees including Iluka Resources, Mineral Resources and Monadelphous Group.

The state’s agricultural industry will require almost $600 billion of investment by 2050 to improve productivity and rationalise production in a bid to access Asian markets, according to a new report released by KPMG for the state Department of Agriculture and Food.

The delivery of the state government’s budget will be delayed one week to account for uncertainty in the distribution of the GST, Treasurer Mike Nahan announced today.

Lower petrol prices have not accelerated new vehicle purchases in Western Australia, with sales down 6.1 per cent in February on the same period in 2014.

The federal government has watered down planned changes to the research and development tax incentive scheme, which industry players say will improve its impact on productivity.

Treasurer Mike Nahan, who is coming up on a year in the job later this month, spoke to an audience of nearly 500 at a Business News Success & Leadership breakfast last week.

Iluka Resources managing director David Robb has acquired around $2.5 million of shares in the mineral sands producer under the company’s incentive plans.

Ten Western Australian Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union officials are among 72 nationally before the courts for alleged workplace law breaches, according to the Fair Work Building Commission.

The world’s two top ranked one-day cricket teams, Australia and India, are set to head to Perth’s WACA Ground for World Cup games against minnows Afghanistan and the United Arab Emirates in the coming week.

Poor procurement practices cost Australian governments around $239 million annually, according to a new study from Deloitte Access Economics.

A fall in pearl sizes has dragged down revenue for Atlas Pearls and Perfumes, with the company confirming a loss for the first half of the year flagged in a restructure last week.

Western Australia's grain production could be valued at $10 billion annually by 2025, under a new strategy launched today by the Grain Industry Association of Western Australia.

Treasurer Mike Nahan has reiterated the state government’s commitment to return to surplus by 2016-17, but has pledged not to do it by hitting families or businesses, at today’s Business News Success and Leadership breakfast.

A depreciating currency and encouraging demand over the medium term spells good news for the state’s mining juniors, if they can ride out short-term fluctuations.

Western Australian businesses borrowed more last year than at any time since the GFC, with commercial finance up 14.9 per cent to $44.8 billion on the previous year’s figure, according to recent data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

The regulation of potato production in WA has the business community bemused at how such an anachronism can survive.

Planned federal government reforms to the ‘significant investor visa’ program risk making the scheme unpalatable to potential migrants, according to 888 Fund managing director John Garland.

Shares in Nomad Building Solutions were up 26 per cent today, after the company announced it would acquire privately-owned Bloomer Constructions Qld for up to $10.4 million, which offset news of an expected loss in its McGrath Homes business.