BHP has applied to surrender the retention leases surrounding Tallaganda and Bunyip gas discoveries in deep water about 115 km off the Western Australian town of Exmouth in the offshore Carnarvon basin.
The surrender of WA-72-R and neighboring WA-73-R comes a month before the lease expiry date and returns the fields to stranded gas field status.
BHP discovered Tallaganda in second-half 2012 in what was then exploration permit WA-351-P and straddling the southern boundary into the company’s WA-335-P. Bunyip was found in WA-335-P in 2014.
Both discoveries are in the Triassic-age Mungaroo formation and were estimated to contain total gas reserves of around 500 bcf. Water depths in the region are about 1,200 m.
Initial development ideas centered on a tie-in to BHP’s Macedon field about 80 km away as the fields were not large enough to warrant a stand-alone LNG project with a pipeline to shore. That scheme lapsed.
BHP took out two 5-year retention leases (72-R and 73-R) in 2016 and began to consider a mini floating LNG development. However, BHP has decided to abandon its attempts to commercialize the two discoveries.
