Oz's Mereenie Gas Aims for Late 2018 Launch
The Australian Northern Territory-based Mereenie gas project has awarded contracts which should see it ready to produce in time for the construction of the NT-Queensland Northern Gas Pipeline.
That pipeline will enable it to supply the tight east coast market by the end of the year, joint venture partner Central Petroleum said March 21.
“The first contract for the new field compressor provides for it to be delivered to site by early October in sufficient time to be installed and commissioned by December 1 2018, the anticipated date on which the Northern Gas Pipeline should be operational,” Central Petroleum said. “A second contract is for the restaging of two existing compressors presently at site. The first of the two compressors is due to be re-staged and commissioned by mid-November, with the second by late November,” it said.
Central Petroleum and its 50:50 joint venture partner Macquarie Group made the decision to develop the project last week after the country’s competition watchdog issued a draft decision earlier in the month to allow the two to jointly market the gas.
The company had hoped to make the plant upgrade decision in February but was waiting on the marketing approval from the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission and is now scrambling to be ready in time for the Northern Gas Pipeline. The upgrade to the processing plant is coming at a cost of A$12mn ($9.4mn) and is aimed at increasing its capacity from its present 25 TJ/day, or 0.67mn m3/d (9PJ or 0.24bn m3 per year), of which 15 TJ/d is sold as gas into the Northern Territory market with the balance re-injected, to a new capacity of 63 TJ/d of which 58 TJ/d will be sold as gas, Central said last week.
The Northern Gas Pipeline will, for the first time, link the Top End of Australia to the eastern seaboard. The Mereenie oil and gas field is located in the Amadeus Basin in the NT.