Woodside, Talisman complete sale of Timor Sea fields

May 3, 2016
Partners Woodside Petroleum Ltd. and Talisman Energy Ltd. have completed their joint 2015 deal to sell mature Laminaria and Corallina oil fields in the western Timor Sea.

Partners Woodside Petroleum Ltd. and Talisman Energy Ltd. have completed their joint 2015 deal to sell mature Laminaria and Corallina oil fields in the western Timor Sea (OGJ Online, Apr. 7, 2014).

The buyer is privately owned newcomer Northern Oil & Gas Australia (NOGA), established by Angus Karoll, former founder and chairman of Queensland coal-seam gas producer WestSide Corp.

The transaction fee has not been disclosed.

Woodside reported in its third-quarter report for 2015 that it had reached a conditional agreement for the sale, although at that stage it did not disclose the buyer.

The two fields produced an average of just less than 3,000 b/d of oil during this year’s first quarter.

Laminaria was discovered in 1994, and Corallina the following year. The fields were brought on stream via the Northern Endeavour floating production, storage, and offloading vessel in 1999 after development costs of $1.37 billion (Aus.). The current production is via six subsea wells for Laminaria and two for Corallina plus one gas reinjection well. They are tied back to the FPSO via three subsea manifolds and associated flowlines.

As part of the deal, Woodside will provide transitional operator services to NOGA during May and June to ensure a smooth transition.

Laminaria and Corallina are foundation assets for Perth-based NOGA. The company plans to optimize production and efficiency of the project, at the same time looking for opportunities to use spare capacity. Its strategy is to look for more material, value-adding opportunities in the Australasian region.

This first deal comes with the Northern Endeavour FPSO that has a capacity of 170,000 b/d and is permanently moored at the fields 550 km northwest of Darwin.