Santos Ltd., Adelaide, has restarted oil production from Van Gogh fields in Carnarvon basin offshore Western Australia and is preparing a three-well Phase 2 drilling program.
The FPSO Ningaloo Vision has returned from a scheduled, but challenging, dry docking and maintenance program in Singapore. The maintenance work was delayed when the FPSO arrived in Singapore last year just as that nation went into a 3-month lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Ningaloo Vision has now begun ramping up production from Van Gogh, Coniston, and Novara fields, expecting to reach a flow of 10,000 b/d of oil within a few weeks.
The return to production coincides with Santos’ moves to begin a second phase of infill drilling in Van Gogh field which is expected to start next month.
The new wells will be drilled using the Valaris MS1 semisubmersible rig targeting about 10 million bbl of reserves. Oil is expected on stream in fourth-quarter 2021.
Production from Van Gogh, which lies in production license WA-35-L, began in 2010, while nearby Coniston and Novara fields were tied back to Ningaloo Vision in 2015 and 2016, respectively.
Phase 1 of the infill project began in September 2018 with two subsea wells connecting to the existing infrastructure. These wells were brought on stream in January 2019.
Santos has a 52.5% interest and operatorship of the three fields. Inpex holds the remaining 47.5%.
