The National Offshore Petroleum Safety and Environmental Management Authority (NOPSEMA) has accepted an Offshore Project Proposal (OPP) from Shell Australia to develop Crux gas field in Browse basin offshore Western Australia (OGJ Online, Feb. 5, 2019).
Consisting of a platform and five production wells, the proposed Crux development would connect to Shell’s Prelude floating LNG (FLNG) plant via a 165 km export pipeline. Originally discovered by Nexus Energy in 2000, Crux has an estimated resource of 2 tcf of gas and 66 million bbl of condensate.
The approval follows an assessment process of almost 2 years, including a public comment process. Development is subject to further regulatory approvals prior to proceeding, including an accepted environment plan, a well operations management plan and facility safety case.
In February 2019, Shell let a multimillion-dollar contract to Wood and KBR to deliver integrated front-end engineering and design for the gas-condensate development project (OGJ Online, Feb. 7, 2019).
Shell holds 82% of Crux with Seven Group Holding’s subsidiary SGH Energy holding 15% and Osaka Gas 3%.