Australian oil and gas exploration and production company AWE has started commercial gas sales from Stage 1A of the Waitsia gas project located in production licence L1/L2 in the onshore Perth Basin, Western Australia, about 367km north of Perth and 16.5km east-southeast of Dongara.
AWE operates the Waitsia gas project with 50% interest.
As part of Stage 1A, new infrastructure has been installed to connect the Waitsia-1 and Senecio-3 gas wells to the upgraded Xyris Production Facility (XPF).
The company commissioned XPF and also achieved production capacity of ten terajoules per day (TJ/d).
Gas is planned to be delivered to the Parmelia pipeline, with Alinta Energy taking up to a maximum daily quantity of 9.6 TJ/day under a gas sales agreement for 2.5 years.
AWE’s focus will now be on moving to Stage 2, a full field development phase that would see an increase production capacity of up to 100 TJ/d.
The company already started its development concept selection process for Waitsia Stage 2 and is further planning to drill two new appraisal / production wells next year.
AWE managing director and CEO David Biggs said: “The first gas sale from the Waitsia gas project represents a major milestone for AWE.
“The Waitsia gas field was discovered less than two years ago and we moved quickly to appraise the asset ahead of a final investment decision (FID) for Stage 1A in January 2016.
“This is the first step towards full field development of the Waitsia gas project, which will deliver significant revenue growth for AWE from 2020, and highlights the strength of our technical and operating capabilities.”
