The Australian offshore regulator, NOPSEMA (National Offshore Petroleum Safety and Environmental Management Authority) is currently evaluating Jadestone Energy’s environment plan for drilling operations in the Stag field, offshore Western Australia.
NOPSEMA informed the public that the Stag 51H and 50H Drilling Environment Plan was submitted on 25 January 2022 by Jadestone Energy’s wholly-owned subsidiary Jadestone Australia. It is currently being assessed by the Australian regulator.
Jadestone Energy is both the operator and the titleholder of the Stag fieldProduction and export facility in permit zone WA-15-L. Located in the Carnarvon Basin, approximately 60 km north of Dampier at approximately 49-metres water depth. The oil is currently produced by the Stag reservoir via wells. Seawater, production water and oil are injected via injection wells.
The field was developed using an eight-slot, fixed leg, central processing facility platform that could produce liquids at 50,000 bbl/d. 30,000 of these bbl/d were for oil. It is connected to an eight-inch underground export pipeline to a floating storage and offloading vessel (FSO), via a catenary anchor leg buoy. Shuttle tankers then transfer the oil from FSO to shore.
Jadestone informed within its environment plan that drilling activities are required to sustain required oil production rates over the life of the Stag facility and in line with this the company proposed to drill two new production wells – 50H and 51H – and plug and abandon two existing suboptimal producing wells using a mobile offshore drilling unit (MODU).
The proposed production wells and P&A activity will be located at the Stag Central Production Facility platform (CPF), within permit WA-15-LIn Commonwealth waters on the North West Shelf (NWS), off Western Australia. It has been in production continuously since 1998, with minor modifications only.
Based on the submitted environment plan, the operational zone is the area within a 500-metre radius of the Stag CPF and subsea expert pipelines.
This environment plan estimates that the P&As and the new production wells activities at Stag platform will take approximately 90 days. In addition, the scope of the plan also covers a further five years of operation.
The drilling activities will vary depending on the availability of rigs. However Jadestones preferred timing is
Between June and October 2022. However, drilling activities could occur outside of this window and could take place in 2023. The drilling environment plan will remain valid for two years after acceptance.
It is worth noting that Jadestone Energy is looking for a new Chief Finance Officer (CFO) since December 2021. The current CFO plans to leave the company to join Cooper Energy.