Woodside increases gas estimate for Scarborough project

Australian oil and gas company Woodside has completed subsurface studies on the Scarborough gas field, resulting in a resource volume increase of 52 percent.

Woodside said on Friday that the estimated gross contingent resource (2C) dry gas volume for the Scarborough field increased to 11.1 tcf, up 52 percent from 7.3 tcf.

The company’s interest in the Greater Scarborough area, which covers the Scarborough, Thebe, and Jupiter fields, comprises a 75 percent interest in WA-1-R – which contains the majority of the Scarborough field – and a 50 percent interest in each of WA-61-R, WA-62-R, and WA-63-R.

It is worth noting that Woodside is the operator of these retention leases.

As a result of the volume increase, Greater Scarborough contains an estimated gross dry gas contingent resource (2C) volume of 13.0 tcf, a 41 percent increase from the previous 9.2 tcf.

Woodside added that the integrated subsurface studies incorporated full-waveform inversion 3D seismic reprocessing and updated petrophysical interpretation.

The seismic reprocessing improved the reservoir imaging quality and increased reservoir sand distribution.

Also, a comprehensive integrated review of the wireline log data and measurements from special core analysis increased net sand proportion and gas saturations. According to Woodside, assurance of this work was provided by an external independent reserves auditor.

It is worth noting that Woodside’s overall corporate contingent resources (2C) increased by 503 mmboe to 6,020 mmboe.

Woodside CEO Peter Coleman said: “Our understanding of the value of the Scarborough gas resource has increased after applying leading-edge technology to geophysical data collected since the field’s discovery almost 40 years ago.

“By unlocking the huge potential of the Scarborough gas resource we’ve strengthened the case for the development and extended the expected cashflow from Scarborough for years. This resource upgrade further improves Scarborough’s existing value proposition as we target the delivery of a new, globally competitive LNG project from 2024.”

Scarborough field

Woodside took over operatorship over the Scarborough project off W. Australia from ExxonMobil in 2018. Woodside paid $444 million for Exxon’s share and will pay $300 million following a positive final investment decision to develop the Scarborough field. The FID is expected to be made in the first half of 2020.

The Scarborough gas field, discovered in 1979, is located off the coast of Western Australia approximately 220 kilometers northwest of Exmouth in 900 meters of water. It is one of the most remote of the Carnarvon Basin gas resources. Woodside first bought a stake there in 2016 from BHP Billiton.

Scarborough gas would be initially processed on a deep-water floating production unit and transported through a 430 km pipeline to a proposed second LNG production train at the existing Woodside-operated Pluto LNG facility on Western Australia’s Burrup Peninsula.

Offshore Energy Today staff

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