Rick Wilkinson
OGJ Correspondent
MELBOURNE, Dec. 8 -- The Apache Australia-Santos Ltd. joint venture has postponed its Reindeer gas project development off Western Australia, citing the poor global economic outlook that has impacted the project's main customer.
The project included an unmanned wellhead platform and an subsea natural gas pipeline to transport gas 100 km to shore. The onshore plant, to be sited at Devil Creek 65 km south of Karratha, included gas processing facilities for supplying the domestic market in Western Australia.
The project was to have come on stream in 2010.
Deferral of Reindeer means that Apache and Santos will have to suspend or terminate engineering and construction contracts, the main contractor being Perth-based Clough Engineering.
However Santos said that work will continue on regulatory approvals to ensure that restarting the project can be timely once gas sales agreements supporting the development are concluded.
Reindeer, which contains an estimated 410-640 petajoules of gas, was found in 1997 on permit WA-209-P.
Apache has a 55% interest and is the operator. Santos holds the remaining 45% interest.
