Vintage achieves 1st gas from Vali gas field in Queensland
ASX-listed Vintage Energy has started gas supplies from the Vali gas field in Queensland, it said on February 22.
Vintage is the operator of the Vali field in ATP 2021 with 50% interest. Other interest holders are Metgasco and Bridgeport. The field was discovered by the joint venture in 2020.
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Vali is supplying gas to eastern Australia under a long-term gas supply agreement with AGL Energy. The joint venture has contracted to supply an estimated 9 PJ to 16 PJ gas to AGL from field start-up to end-2026.
"AGL showed its willingness to step up and encourage new players with new supply; something keenly needed by the east coast gas market,” Vintage managing director Neil Gibbins said. “By pre-paying the joint venture A$15mn, AGL enabled Vali to be brought online much earlier than would otherwise have been the case. The long-term supply agreement with AGL was pivotal to Vintage securing the capital required to commit to the project.”
The field, among the larger gas discoveries in the Cooper basin in the past decade, is independently certified as having proved and probable gas reserves of 101 PJ.
"Our expectation is Vali, and the nearby Odin gas field, will be supplying gas to eastern Australia for many years. The facilities and pipeline installed for these first flows will be an initial production solution on full field development in the coming years." said Gibbins.
Vintage said it has refrained from contracting the bulk of the field's gas reserves, as it builds a thorough understanding of the field's producing reservoirs from its three existing wells. The understanding acquired over the first 6 - 9 months of production will inform the preparation of a full field development plan and marketing of Vali's uncontracted gas, which currently stands at 85 PJ.
The Odin gas field, which is located approximately 7 km west of Vali, has been independently certified as containing a 2C resource of approximately 40 PJ of gas.
Gas from Vali undergoes initial separation and metering through facilities recently installed and commissioned at the field from where it is transported to join the Moomba gas gathering network at Beckler. Processing is undertaken at the Moomba facility prior to sale.
"The focus in this initial production appraisal period will be on assessing and learning from the performance of the individual producing reservoirs in each well, rather than short-term output maximisation,” Gibbins said.
"By the second half of this calendar year we expect to be in a position to outline the most value-accretive development plan for the field and the scale and profile of an expanded gas supply we can take to market," Gibbins added.
Meanwhile, work on connecting the nearby Odin gas field to market has been advancing. The Fiberspar pipe to connect the field to the Vali-Beckler pipeline has been laid and FEED on the connection has commenced.
This link will provide an interim accelerated connection to enable Odin gas to flow to the east coast market as soon as practicable, Vintage said. Supply from Odin through the interim accelerated connection is projected to be possible in the third quarter of calendar 2023.