By OGJ editors
HOUSTON, Jan. 16 -- First gas is flowing from the Bayu-Undan natural gas and liquids field, reported participant Santos Ltd. Wednesday. The field lies in the Joint Petroleum Development Area (JPDA) of the Timor Sea, jointly shared by Australia and the newly independent East Timor (OGJ Online, Mar. 10, 2003).
Operator ConocoPhillips has opened two gas wells for production as part of the commissioning and start-up procedures for Wellhead Platform Number1, Santos said. And the Liberdade floating storage and offloading vessel is being prepared to receive LPG. About 1,000 tonnes each of propane and butane have been loaded onto the vessel to precool its storage tanks prior to LPG production from the field.
"Bayu-Undan remains on schedule for first liquids production in April 2004, and this latest achievement gives us increased confidence we will successfully deliver commercial liquids production in coming weeks," said Santos Managing Director John Ellice-Flint.
The project's $1.8 billion first stage, due on stream in April, is the gas recycle project that involves stripping condensate and natural gas liquids (LPG) from the field's gas stream and reinjecting the residual gas.
The second stage—the $1.5 billion LNG development project—involves transporting residual gas to Wickham Point at Darwin in Australia's Northern Territory and processing it into LNG for export to Japan.
A joint venture of Tokyo Electric Power Co. Inc.-Tokyo Gas Co. Ltd. JV, which has assumed a 10.08% ownership interest in the project, has contracted to purchase the project's entire production of 3 million tpy for 17 years. LNG production is scheduled to begin in first half 2006 (OGJ, June. 30, 2003, p. 64).
ConocoPhillips holds a 56.72% interest in the project. Other partners are ENI SPA unit Agip SPA 12.04%, Santos 10.64%, and Inpex Corp. 10.52%.
