BP Withdraws Great Australian Bight Drilling Programme

UK major BP officially withdrew December 20 its environment plan submissions for its Great Australian Bight exploration drilling programme (Stromlo-1 and Whinham-1) and Great Australian Bight Exploration drilling programme offshore South Australia, the National Offshore Petroleum Safety and Environmental Management Authority (Nopsema) said December 21.

In October, BP had announced its decision to stop exploration work in the Great Australian Bight as it was no longer competitive with other projects in its portfolio. Following a review of its upstream strategy this year it decided to focus exploration on opportunities likely to create value in the near to medium term, which mostly means building on its existing upstream positions. 

Nopsema had requested further information from BP on the key areas relevant to the environmental management of the proposed drilling. The regulator stated that “further information on these key areas was not provided prior to the withdrawal notification being issued by BP, and no further assessment of the environment plan submissions will be undertaken by Nopsema.”

Nopsema said it would cancel its approval process for the well operations management plans for the Stromlo-1 and Whinham-1 exploration wells.

Shardul Sharma