Page 13 - AsianOil Week 40

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Senex delivers first gas from Project Atlas
PROJECTS & COMPANIES
AUSTRALIAN independent Senex Energy has announced first gas production from the Project Atlas acreage in Queensland State.
Senex said drilling on the 58 square km Pro- ject Atlas, which is located near Miles and Wan- doan, began in August 2019 and 11 wells of the roughly 60-well campaign had been drilled and completed. It added that four wells had recently been brought on stream.
The block was the first awarded under the state government’s drive to deliver more gas to the domestic market. Senex was granted the petroleum lease for Project Atlas in March 2018 and, while the project’s gas is being flared prior to commissioning this quarter, Senex will sell its output exclusively to domestic buyers.
Senex said it had contracted most of its expected gas production volumes in 2020, with buyers including local manufacturers such as CSR, Orora and O-I. The developer added that it was negotiating contracts for the last of the pro- ject’s annual production.
Managing director and CEO Ian Davies said: “The delivery of a greenfield natural gas develop- ment in 18 months is an outstanding achievement. The remainder of 2019 will be active and exciting as we bring more wells online, commission the gas facility and increase production to meet sales agree- ments commencing January 1, 2020.”
The delivery of first gas comes after Senex announced on October 3 that pipeline operator Jemena had completed a 60km pipeline that will connect a still-to-be-completed gas processing facility to the existing Darling Downs pipeline, which runs to the Wallumbilla Hub. Construction of the pipeline began in July, while work on the 15 petajoule (390.73mn cubic metre) per year process- ing facility is ongoing. Jemena owns and operates both the facility and the pipeline. Project Atlas has 144PJ (3.75bn cubic metres) of proved and proba- ble reserves, according to Senex’s website.™
Santos upbeat on NWS well test
PROJECTS & COMPANIES
SANTOS has said an initial flow test at its third well on the Dorado field offshore Western Aus- tralia suggests the field is capable of producing oil at the upper end of pre-drill expectations.
The company said the test of the Caley reser- voir from Dorado-3 delivered one of the highest production rates ever from a North West Shelf (NWS) appraisal well test.
The field lies in the WA-437-P permit in the off- shore Bedout Basin. Santos owns an 80% operated interest in the licence and Carnarvon Petroleum holds the remainder. Dorado-3 lies roughly 160km north of Port Hedland and 1km north-west of the Dorado-1 discovery, made in July 2018.
The initial clean-up flow test of the Caley res- ervoir was conducted over a 12-hour period and achieved a maximum measured rate of around 11,100 bpd of oil and 21mn cubic feet (594,000 cubic metres) per day of associated gas. Pro- duction was constrained by surface equipment, which with the company saying this meant the reservoir could flow at significantly higher rates.
Commenting on the results, Santos manag- ing director and CEO Kevin Gallagher said the test indicated “very high potential flow rates of
around 30,000 barrels per day from each single production well in the Caley reservoir”.
The company said the flow test, coupled with its successful Baxter test in late September, strongly supported beginning front-end engi- neering design (FEED) work in early 2020.
Dorado-3 was drilled using the Noble Tom Prosser jack-up rig in a water depth of 95 metres and reached a total measured depth of 4,643 metres. Santos said that once operations were completed, the well would be plugged and aban- doned as planned.
The announcement of Dorado-3’s success comes just two weeks after the company revealed that it and 50:50 joint venture partner BP had won a new offshore permit it described as being “on-trend” with Dorado. Santos will operate WA-541-P, which covers 6,964 square km of the Northern Carnarvon Basin, with a 50% stake. The permit lies to the west of WA-437-P.
Gallagher said at the time: “Santos is pleased to have been awarded this acreage on-trend with the Dorado discovery, a now proven world-class, liquids-rich petroleum system with high-quality reservoirs.”™
Week 40 09•October•2019 w w w . N E W S B A S E . c o m P13