Cooper Sees Further Delays to Oz Sole Project
Cooper Energy’s progress at its Sole gas field in Australia’s Gippsland Basin has seen further set-backs with flow back to be offline for a week or so, the company said June 25.
“Cooper Energy advises that the clean-up and flow back of the Sole-3 gas well has been delayed pending re-installation of the upper completion after testing of this section identified anomalies preventing verification of the pressure integrity of the annulus above the production packer,” Cooper said.
The company made the decision on the evening of June 22 to re-run the upper completion with a new packer, which it expects to take approximately seven days, after which preparations for the flow back will resume, it said.
Earlier in the month Cooper suspended operations at the field for three-to-five days because of bad weather, which also followed a one-week delay to flow back at Sole-3 because of operational issues with a downhole service tool.
When initially announcing it had spudded the first well at May 2, Cooper said it was expecting the Sole-3 work programme, which includes drilling, installation of a subsea production tree, an open hole gravel pack completion and clean up flow testing, to take about 30 days.
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.
Once Sole-3 is completed it will be followed immediately by work on Sole-4 which is similar in design, accessing a different part of the same reservoir.
“The operation to re-run the upper completion holds no significance for the reservoir completion which has been tested and its integrity confirmed,” Cooper said.