Cooper Energy Ltd., Adelaide, has started gas supply from its 100%-owned Sole field in eastern Bass Strait offshore Victoria under term contracts to industrial customers.
Reconfiguration works at the onshore, APA Group-operated Orbost gas processing plant are complete.
The plant’s earlier performance had been impaired by unexplained foaming in the absorber section of the sulphur recovery unit. Remedial work began in mid-November to enable the absorbers to operate in parallel, sequentially, or independently, enabling higher sustained production rates and greater operational flexibility, the company said.
A term gas supply contract of 8 terajoules/day with Visy began Dec. 1.
Sole is currently producing 25 terajoules/day and volumes in excess of the supply to Visy are being sold on the spot market during December.
Cooper plans to gradually increase plant production rates before commencement of the remaining term supply contracts on Jan. 1, 2021.
The total annual contract is 19.75 petajoules/year (54 terajoules/day). A minimum offtake of 90% of this figure is provided by take-or-pay obligations.