Jadestone Energy PLC will restart production at Montara in the Timor Sea offshore northern Australia on Sept. 1, 2023, following an investigation and assurance review into the 4S-5C tank defects on the Montara Venture floating production, storage, and offtake vessel (FPSO).
A gas alarm was triggered within tank 4S on July 29, indicating possible communication with one of the adjacent tanks within the FPSO (OGJ Online, July 31, 2023). Repairs to ballast water tank 4P are almost complete, after which it will be returned to service. Inspections and preparations for repair work are now under way in tank 5C and ballast water tank 4S.
Production will be restarted from one well at an expected rate of about 1,000 b/d to recommission the FPSO’s oil production system, followed by gas compression, allowing further wells to be brought back online within several days. At this point, production is expected to increase to about 6,000 b/d, the rate prior to the shutdown at the end of July 2023.
The defects encountered pose no safety or structural risk, nor any risk of a hydrocarbon leak to sea. The company will continue to utilize a shuttle tanker to provide additional storage during this period of constrained FPSO storage capacity.
The Montara project is in production licenses AC/L7 and AC/L8 about 690 km west of Darwin, 630 km north of Broome, and 250 km north-west from the Kimberley coastline of Western Australia in 77 m of water. Montara fields are in the Vulcan sub-basin.
Montara produces oil using platform production wells for Montara field and subsea wells for Swift, Skua, and Swallow fields. Oil from the subsea wells is piped via subsea flowlines to an unmanned wellhead platform and then to the FPSO which acts as a hub for Montara fields.
Jadestone is the 100% owner and operator of the Montara project.
