Offshore regulator starts assessing Beach Energy’s survey plan

Australia’s National Offshore Petroleum Safety and Environmental Management Authority (NOPSEMA) has begun an assessment of Beach Energy’s proposed T/30P geophysical and geotechnical seabed survey offshore Australia ahead of a future exploration well.

Beach Energy’s seabed survey proposal was submitted on March 19.

Australia’s offshore regulator invited public comments for the proposal only days after the proposal was submitted.

The survey plan is now under assessment with the regulator.

Under the proposal, Beach Energy’s subsidiary – Beach Energy Operations Limited – proposed to undertake a geophysical and geotechnical site survey over a portion of their T/30P permit and open acreage in the Otway Basin. At its closest point, the site survey is 76.5 kilometres from Port Campbell.

The site survey is required to inform the location of future drilling of an exploration well and identify potential hazards.

According to NOPSEMA, the data will be acquired from the same vessel in two parts.

Namely, the geophysical survey to collect bathymetry data and detect hazards and a high-resolution two-dimensional shallow reflective imaging (2D survey) to inform shallow gas hazards.

The geotechnical survey, which may be undertaken from the same vessel as the geophysical and 2D survey or from a separate vessel, consists of coring, Piezo cone penetrometer test, and grab samples.

The site survey will take up to 28 days based on 21 days of survey time and 7 days for transits and setting up of equipment.

The site survey is proposed to be undertaken between 1 April 2020, and 31 December 2021. Timings of the survey are contingent on the availability of suitable vessels, weather, and the receipt of required environmental approvals.

The survey will be undertaken with only one vessel undertaking each component at a time with the geophysical survey requiring seven days, the geotechnical survey needing six days, while the remaining eight days will be used for the 2D component.

The survey area refers is a 36 square kilometre area with an operational area of 100 square kilometres. The survey will be conducted in water depths across the operational area range from 150 – 1,110 meters.