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Victoria,” he told The Standard. “Frack- ing is only required where you get hard coal seams you need to fracture in order to extract [coal-bed methane (CBM)]. We have a brown-coal base which is full of moisture which is why it burns so badly and creates so many emissions.”
He added: “Where [Victorian Premier] Daniel Andrews is wrong is to be banning natural gas.”
O’Brien said Victoria had enjoyed Aus- tralia’s cheapest and most reliable gas supply five years ago, but the state had since slipped
to last place on both fronts. The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission’s (ACCC) Gas Inquiry 2017-2025 Interim Report, which was published on February 18, found that Victoria has the highest num- ber of gas consumers and is the nation’s big- gest gas consumer.
APPEA’s McConville said: “With declining gas production offshore in Victoria, exploring and developing the state’s onshore gas resources ought to be an urgent priority of the state government.”
OMV gears up for drilling campaign offshore NZ
PROJECTS & COMPANIES
AUSTRIAN developer OMV has said it expects the Archer Emerald modular drilling rig (MDR) to arrive this week at the company’s Maui A field in New Zealand.
The company told local news services Stuff the rig would drill six or more wells from the existing Maui platform into the crest of the Maui A structure over the next year.
The wells will be drilled to a depth of 4,200- 5,000 metres and will include 1,000-metre long horizontal sections that will target gas and con- densate in the structure’s upper layers.
“A number of the original wells are now exhausted and all new wells from this cam- paign involve side tracks from these currently non-productive well bores,” Stuff quoted an OMV spokesperson as saying.
The wells form part of the company’s NZD500mn ($315mn) redevelopment plan to maintain production at the offshore Maui and Pohokura fields. The company took over as the fields’ operator from Royal Dutch Shell in December 2018.
“We are currently developing further drilling opportunities in both these fields as extending the lifespan will be critical to ensure continuing security of domestic energy supply,” the spokes- man added.
OMV hired the Archer Emerald in July 2019 under a firm five-well contract, with two one- well options. Service provider Archer said at the time that the firm contract commitment was estimated to last 11 months and that the optional wells would require a further five months.
The rig, which was mobilised from Norway following a period of rig reactivation and pre-op- eration acceptance testing, is expected to begin drilling from March 1.
The company is also conducting exploration in the deep waters off the east coast of New Zea- land’s South Island, but recent efforts there have proved to be disappointing.
OMV said last week that its Tawhaki-1 deep- water exploration well in permit PEP50119 in the Great South basin had been plugged as a dry hole. The developer said drilling data had indi- cated an absence of hydrocarbons in the target reservoir.
OMV owns 52.9% of the permit, while Beach Energy has 30% and Mitsui E&P Australia holds 17.07%.
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