Santos Ltd. has delayed the final investment decision (FID) for Dorado oil development in the Bedout subbasin offshore Western Australia in license WA-64-L due to the current inflationary cost environment and supply uncertainties.
Project partner Carnarvon Energy Ltd. said front-end engineering and design is nearing completion and the project is technically robust. Nevertheless, FID will not be made in 2022 as planned.
The main outstanding matter is finalization of the engineering procurement and construction contract for the floating production, storage and offtake (FPSO) vessel, Carnarvon said. The FPSO represents more than 50% of the expected project cost and must be carefully contracted and managed.
Engineering work for the 16 well-slot wellhead platform and FPSO is essentially complete and will enable further tie-back opportunities such as the recent Pavo discovery.
The FPSO will have a process capacity of 100,000 b/d of oil plus 215 MMcfd of gas for reinjection into the Dorado reservoir. Storage capacity will be 1 million bbl.
At Pavo, pre-development work has begun, with a discovery assessment report filed with the National Offshore Petroleum Safety and Environmental Management Authority (NOPSEMA) and studies being undertaken for potential development.
Pavo-1 is estimated to contain 43 million bbl of 2C resource (Pavo North). The intent is to tie the oil pool back to the Dorado FPSO.
Pavo South is estimated to contain 55 million bbl of 2P resource. Drilling is in the planning stage.
Carnarvon plans to farm out a portion of its interest in Dorado and the associated exploration acreage before moving to FID to help fund its portion of development.
Santos is operator of the Dorado project with 80% interest. Carnarvon holds 20% interest.