Cooper Completes Drilling Program for Oz Sole Gas Project
Cooper Energy has completed its drilling program for the Sole Gas Project in Australia’s Gippsland Basin within budget and schedule, the company said August 6.
“Both Sole-3 and Sole-4 have delivered on design and confirmed our assessment of the excellent deliverability of the Sole reservoir. We now have two wells, ready to go, that have shown capability for higher production rates than design should the plant throughput enable this,” Cooper’s managing director David Maxwell said.
The test on Sole-4, which commenced at 10:44 am AEST on August 4, was conducted over a 24 hour period with the flow rate constrained by surface well test equipment to a maximum measured rate of 60 million feet3 per day, Cooper said.
Preliminary technical analysis indicates Sole-4 can produce at or near the onshore plant capacity of 68 TJ per day, it said.
Sole-4 is currently being suspended prior to pipeline connection. It is expected the pipelay operation to connect the Sole gas field with the Orbost Gas Processing Plant will commence in October, it said.
The delivery of Sole-4 follows Sole-3 flow-back operations being completed in early July. Post-test analysis of Sole-3 confirmed its capability to also produce above the maximum plant throughput rate of 68 TJ per day, Cooper said at the time. Its flow rate was constructed by the surface well test equipment to a maximum of about 48mn feet3 per day, it said.
Cooper, which holds 100% equity in the Sole gas field, is undertaking the A$355mn ($264mn) offshore development, while APA Group is conducting a A$250mn upgrade to the onshore Orbost Gas Processing Plant to enable processing of gas from sole.
The field is being developed to supply about 24 PJ of gas per year from mid-2019, with about 75% of the field’s reserves contracted to a range of utility and industrial customers including AGL Energy, EnergyAustralia, Alinta Energy and O-I.
“Having now completed the workstream which carried the greatest financial exposure, the project remains within schedule and within budget. As the remaining workstreams are based on fixed price lump sum contracts, this position has further reinforced our confidence in project completion within the forecast budget of [A]$355mn,” Maxwell said.