Production licence granted for Stag oilfield

28/8/97

The Stag oilfield is closer to first production following the granting of a production licence by the Commonwealth Minister of Resources and Energy, Senator Warwick Parer, and the Western Australian Minister for Mines, Norman Moore.

Senator Parer said although Stag was a relatively small oilfield, it represented a significant milestone for exploration and production on the North-West Shelf.

He said the facility was significant for being innovative in a number of ways.

"The proposal to combine water injection facilities with electric pumps to assist in recovering the oil represents a technological breakthrough for the offshore industry," Senator Parer said.

"Additionally, the production facility, which is especially suited for the development of marginal oilfields, will be reusable when the Stag field is depleted.

"All Australians benefit when the nation's resources, including small petroleum fields, are developed in sustainable and innovative ways."

Mr Moore said the environmental impact of the project was expected to be small, but the impacts would be monitored on an annual basis.

"Being a self-installing jack-up facility, it will be able to be decommissioned and removed in an environmentally-benign manner," he said.

The Stag oilfield is in Commonwealth waters, about 65km north west of Dampier and 20km from the Wandoo oilfield project.

It is considered a relatively small oilfield, with expected recoverable reserves of less than 50 million barrels.

The operator will use a 'jack-up' barge, sitting on a conventional steel jacket, as the base for the production and processing facilities; with the oil stored in a dedicated floating storage and offloading vessel or directly offloaded from the platform into tankers; and pipelines linking these facilities via a tanker mooring buoy.

The operator's development plan includes four horizontal wells, redrilling an existing well, plus drilling up to four water injection wells. Production rates will be up to 30,000 barrels of oil a day, starting in 1997 and, on current expectations, ceasing production in 2011.

The oilfield will be developed by a consortium consisting of Santos Ltd, Globex Far East and Apache North West Pty Ltd, Apache Energy will be the operator for the project.

Media contacts: Lisa Holland-McNair, WA Department of Minerals and Energy, (08) 9222 3572

Hartley Joynt, Norman Moore's office, 08 9321 1444