Santos has been granted approval by Australia’s National Offshore Petroleum Safety and Environmental Management Authority (NOPSEMA) to run its Keraudren Extension 3D seismic survey in the Bedout subbasin off the Western Australian coast.
The survey will run over parts of Santos-operated exploration permits WA-435-P, WA-436P, WA-437-P, and WA-438-P which contain the Dorado, Roc, and Phoenix discoveries.
The program is an extension of the original Keraudren survey run in 2019 over Dorado field.
The survey data is required to develop regional geological models to determine permit retention strategy and locate future exploration and development well locations, Santos said.
The survey will be run in stages with the exact area of each stage yet to be nominated. The intention is to acquire the full survey in 2021 and/or 2022. Work will be confined to a 6-month period between the beginning of February and the end of July to avoid interfering with fish spawning and whale migration periods.
The survey is expected to take 132 days to complete over an operational area of just over 20,000 sq km. Water depths are 40-250 m.
