Shell gas find boosts Browse basin LNG plan

Rick Wilkinson
OGJ correspondent

MELBOURNE, Aug. 7 -- Shell Australia has found gas close to its Prelude discovery on its 100%-owned permit WA-371-P in the Browse basin off northwest Western Australia.

The discovery in Concerto-1 is yet to be assessed. Nevertheless, it boosts the company’s plans to introduce a floating LNG development scheme to the region.

Shell does not need to release information to the Australian Stock Exchange and is tight-lipped about the discovery. The company does say that Concerto warrants further evaluation with a view to commercialization.

Concerto is the 10th well in a 12-well program. Prelude, discovered 16 km away in 2007, was the first well in the series. There has been no word on results of the other wells drilled so far.

News of the discovery comes just a week after Shell announced the award of a front-end engineering and design contract for a floating LNG facility at Prelude to the joint venture of Technip of France and Samsung of Japan.

The concept calls for a 450 m x 70m cyclone-resistant vessel capable of producing 3.5 million tonnes/year of LNG as well as handling LPG and condensate from the field. This will equate to total liquid production in excess of 5 million tonnes/year. The plans schedule first production in 2012.

The contract award is part of a master agreement between Shell, Technip, and Samsung for design, construction, and installation of multiple facilities over 15 years.

Development plans for Prelude could easily include the Concerto find. The development could also include a tie-in to Crux field, where Shell has a right to 100% of the gas reserves under an agreement with Nexus Energy following completion of Nexus’ liquids-stripping scheme from the field. However, Crux is 100 km from Prelude and may warrant a separate development facility.

Prelude has reserves of 2-3 tcf of gas and 120 million bbl of condensate. Crux also has around 2 tcf gas.