Start of production from Woodside Petroleum Pty. Group's Wanaea/Cossack oil fields complex off Western Australia is slated for Nov. 15, about 6 weeks ahead of schedule.
That will mark the Northwest Shelf/Timor Sea province's leap to the No. 1 spot among Australia's producing areas, to slightly more than the 250,000 b/d the Bass Strait currently produces.
It also means an early revenue spike from the $760 million (Australian) project and a big boost to Australia's efforts to attain oil self-sufficiency.
In other action off Western Australia, prospects are brightening for a possible giant field in the Timor Gap area jointly administered by Australia and Indonesia.
Meantime, Ampolex Ltd., Sydney, has sold a 40% interest in its Wandoo oil field off Western Australia to Mitsui & Co.
WANAEA/COSSACK
Woodside estimates Wanaea/Cossack oil production will peak at about 115,000 b/d and 100 MMcfd of gas.
The twin fields lie 7 km apart about 130 km off the coast and 34 km from the North Rankin gas/condensate platform. Wanaea/Cossack combined reserves are 233 million bbl of oil and 245 bcf of gas.
Oil will be produced into the Cossack Pioneer, formerly an oil tanker acquired by the Woodside group in 1991 for $30 million and converted to a floating production/storage/offloading vessel at Keppel Ltd.'s Singapore shipyard at a cost of another $70 million.
Gas from the project will move by pipeline to the North Rankin platform for inclusion in the two phase gas/condensate pipeline to the Northwest Shelf gas processing plant on the Burrup Peninsula. Plans also call for recovery of liquefied petroleum gas for export (OGJ, Oct. 11, 1993, p. 31).
Wanaea/Cossack is expected to have a 25 year life that could be extended with development of smaller, previously noncommercial nearby discoveries such as Egret and Lambert.
TIMOR GAP FIND
The BHP Petroleum Pty Ltd. group exploring the Timor Gap ZOCA 91-12 permit found strong indications of hydrocarbons in its 1 Undan wildcat.
Logs indicated a gross hydrocarbon column of 139 m within the target zone.
The well was being prepared for production tests at presstime last week.
The 1 Undan lies on the same structure as the Phillips Petroleum Co. group's 1 Bayu discovery on the adjoining ZOCA 91-13 permit (see map, OGJ, Jan. 2, p. 22).
The BHP well is 10 km southeast of 1 Bayu, suggesting the potential for a giant field straddling the permit boundary.
The 1 Bayu last February flowed on drillstem tests from four zones at a combined rate of 90 MMcfd of gas and 5,250 b/d of condensate (OGJ, Mar. 6, p. 39).
Interest holders in ZOCA 91-12 are BHP 42.417%, Santos Ltd. 21.426%, Inpex Sahul 21.209%, and Petroz NL 14.948%.
WANDOO SALE
Ampolex's equity sale involves an undisclosed cash sum for the 40%, interest in WA-202-P permit containing Wandoo effective Jan. 1, 1995, and resulting participation in all project outlays.
The sale also involves a preferential production split under which Ampolex will receive added revenue based on production and operating expense criteria. This arrangement is to be realized during the first 3-4 years of full field production and is expected to total about I million net bbl of oil.
Mitsui also will support Ampolex in obtaining premium markets for Wandoo crude. Mitsui currently buys about 60% of Wandoo oil produced with the current extended production system and has been largely responsible for placing the crude in premium lubricant blending markets.
The sale will cut Ampolex capital spending by about $190 million during Wandoo field development from January 1995 to December 1996, when Ampolex will be participating in a number of other projects.
Copyright 1995 Oil & Gas Journal. All Rights Reserved.
