South Erregulla is an onshore gas field located within exploration permit PL 24 and EP 503 near Perth, Western Australia.
Strike Energy, an independent oil and gas exploration company based in Australia, is the 100% owner and operator of the exploration permit.
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South Erregulla is scheduled to begin production in late 2024.
South Erregulla gas field location
The South Erregulla field is located in the Shire of Three Springs and the Shire of Irwin, approximately 350km north of Perth.
The field lies within the Greater Erregulla region, which also includes the West Erregulla gas field.
Discovery and appraisal details of South Erregulla
The South Erregulla gas field was discovered in 2022 by the South Erregulla-1 (SE-1) exploration well drilled by the Ensign 970 drilling rig following an extensive 2D seismic campaign. The well encountered 14m of net pay in the Permian-aged Kingia Sandstone and 4m of net pay in the basal Wagina Sandstone.
Strike Energy commenced a three-well drilling campaign at the field in 2023, including two up-dip Kingia appraisal wells in the western portion of the field and an easterly Wagina appraisal well.
The South Erregulla-2 (SE-2) well was spud in August 2023 and encountered 45m of net pay in the Kingia Sandstone, confirming the presence of a gas-filled reservoir in the southwestern part of the field.
The drilling of the South Erregulla-3 (SE-3) appraisal well commenced in October 2023 and the well encountered a net pay of 13m in the Kingia Sandstone. The well confirmed resource continuity to the north-west.
The SE-2 and SE-3 appraisal wells are planned to be flow-tested in January 2024.
Reserves of the South Erregulla project
The South Erregulla gas field is estimated to hold proven reserves of 128 petajoules (PJ) and 271PJ of 2C contingent resources.
South Erregulla gas field development
South Erregulla is planned as a three-phase development with all the infrastructure being developed within the Precinct, which is a mid-west low-carbon manufacturing site.
The Precinct is being developed on Strike Energy’s freehold farming land, which does not require any clearing and has minimal biodiversity impacts thereby facilitating a faster and simpler environmental approval process.
Dry natural gas will be recovered from the field through four wells and conveyed to a processing facility through flowlines.
Phase one will include the construction and commissioning of a modular gas processing facility with a capacity of 40 terajoules per day (TJ/d), along with an associated solar array. It will be designed to support production from the independently certified 128PJ of 2P reserves.
In the second phase, the gas processing facility will be expanded to a capacity of more than 80TJ/d with extra modules, depending on the successful appraisal drilling at the field. It will focus on the recovery of 271PJ of 2C resources.
Phase three will incorporate renewable energy sources, including wind and solar and carbon sequestration facilities comprising a CO₂ purification and compression module.
Processing facility and site infrastructure details
The South Erregulla processing facility will comprise chemical injection skids, slug-catcher, liquids separation, gas metering, gas export filtration, condensate stabilisation and storage, apart from mercury removal and carbon dioxide removal units.
In addition, hydrocarbon dewpoint control, flare system, produced water treatment and disposal, truck offtake facilities, and waste gas incineration facilities will be developed.
Support utilities such as power generation will also be available. An off-grid system will provide power to the facilities while control and safety systems will be powered by intermediate batteries.
Gas gathering network details
The gas gathering network will comprise four flowlines with a length of 10km and related equipment that will transport the dry natural gas produced by the field wells to a manifold at the processing facility.
The flowlines will be constructed using open trenching techniques and are designed for 24/7 operation.
A 12km-long pipeline will transport the natural gas from the processing facility to the Dampier to Bunbury Natural Gas Pipeline (DBNGP) for export to the domestic market.
Gas purchase agreement
Strike Energy secured a five-year sales agreement for the supply of 35.5PJ of gas to the Worsley Alumina joint venture operated by mining and metals company South32.
In addition, a three-year sales agreement for 5.47PJ of gas was signed with Perth Energy, a subsidiary of AGL Energy.
Contractors involved
Enerflex secured the engineering, procurement, and fabrication (EPF) contract for the phase one gas processing modules. Based in Canada, Energlex is a provider of power generation and gas production solutions.
Initial engineering for phase one of the project was completed by Technip Energies, an engineering and technology company.
