Oz Orbost Gas Plant Close to Commissioning
Sydney-listed Cooper Energy May 8 said the Orbost gas processing plant in Victoria is close to being commissioned but the rates achieved are yet to meet the 68 terajoules/day (64mn ft3/day) required by the plant production test. This could potentially delay the start-up of the offshore Sole gas project.
“Cooper Energy, APA and its technology partner are working collaboratively to identify and resolve issues to complete commissioning,” the company said. This will include a shut-down of the plant for approximately nine days to inspect, conduct maintenance and complete minor modifications within the sulphur recovery unit. The Orbost plant is being upgraded by gas infrastructure company, APA Group, to process gas from the Sole gas field.
Cooper said the methodical investigation and analysis of other aspects of the plant performance is ongoing. The shut-down is expected to start in the coming days. Cooper Energy is working closely with its customers to align firm supply commencement with plant readiness, it said.
“The gas plant is in the final phase of commissioning to process gas from Sole for supply to customers in south-east Australia. Completion of plant commissioning, through the performance of a plant production test, will enable commencement of the field’s term supply contracts, and commencement of processing tariff payments by Cooper Energy to APA Group,” the company said.
According to Cooper, the plant has a capability to produce sales specification gas from the Sole raw gas stream with total delivery to the Eastern Gas Pipeline of 0.74 petajoules from 36 days’ production. This gas has been sold at spot prices net of a gas transmission cost.
Sales gas has been sourced from both of the Sole-3 and Sole-4 production wells. Reservoir and well performance and raw gas specification have been consistent with expectations, Cooper said. Daily sales gas production rates have ranged between 20 to 25 terajoules for most of the past 14 days. This represents an increase of more than 139% to Cooper’s net daily production of approximately 14 terajoules/day from its other gas operation, Casino Henry, for the March quarter 2020, the company said.