Cooper to buy 50% of offshore Gippsland Sole gas field

Dec. 17, 2014
Cooper Energy Ltd., Adelaide, has bought a 50% interest in the offshore Gippsland Sole dry gas field in retention lease Vic/RL3 as well as 50% of the Orbost onshore gas plant in eastern Victoria from Santos Ltd.

Cooper Energy Ltd., Adelaide, has bought 50% interest in the offshore Gippsland Sole dry gas field in retention lease Vic/RL3 as well as 50% of the Orbost onshore gas plant in eastern Victoria from Santos Ltd.

The $27.5 million (Aus.) acquisition comprises an initial cash payment of $2.5 Million (Aus.) followed by Cooper funding 100% of the initial $50 million (Aus.) project development costs.

Cooper says front-end engineering and design is expected to require an expenditure of $25-29 million (Aus.).

Sole field, originally discovered in 1972 by Royal Dutch Shell PLC, lies in the eastern Bass Strait about 65 km from the Orbost onshore plant. Shell intersected 16 m of net gas pay on the flank of the field, but did not continue as the discovery was then considered noncommercial and too far east of the existing ExxonMobil-BHP Billiton Bass Strait oil and gas systems.

The Sole-2 appraisal well was drilled by Santos Ltd. in 2002 near the crest of the structure and found 68 m of net gas pay. The well tested 20.6 MMcfd. The structure is a simple four-way dip closure and average reservoir porosity is 30% with permeability in excess of 1 darcy.

With FEED about to begin the field is expected to be brought on stream in late 2018 or early 2019.

Gas will be piped to the existing Orbost plant, which was used for production from the Patricia-Baleen gas fields operated by Santos. Final investment decision is planned for third-quarter 2016.

Santos will retain the other 50% of the field and the plant as well as the operatorship.

Sole field will be produced will be via a single development well (expected to produce as much as 70 MMcfd) and pipeline direct to Orbost plant, which in turn is connected to the major Eastern gas line extending to Sydney in New South Wales. The Orbost plant is currently processing gas from the Longtom gas field in Bass Strait and will need modifications to cater for Sole gas.

Sole gas contains 1% carbon dioxide, 0.15% hydrogen sulfide, and less than 1 bbl of condensate per MMcf of gas. The gas processing at Orbost will remove the H2S, but not the CO2. Condensate production is expected to be about 30 b/d.

Cooper already has 65% interest and operatorship of the Basker-Manta-Gummy gas and liquids fields in production licences Vic/L 26, Vic/L27, and Vic/L28. These fields lie 35 km southwest of Sole field.