Jadestone restarts production from Australian field ‘significantly ahead’ of initial schedule

Following temporary repairs, Singapore-headquartered Jadestone Energy has restored production from a field, located in the Timor Sea off Australia, ahead of its initial timeline.

Jadestone revealed on 20 June 2022 that during the transfer of crude oil between two oil tanks onboard the FPSO Montara Venture at its Montara field off Australia, oil was observed on the surface of the sea adjacent to the FPSO on Friday, 17 June 2022.

Due to this incident, the firm advised that transfer operations ceased immediately and production from the Montara fields was shut-in as a precautionary measure. Jadestone estimated the cost of securing the leak site and permanent repair of the crude oil tank at $2-3 million.

At the time, the company also estimated that it would take approximately four weeks to complete the tank inspection and effect repairs to re-commence production at Montara, with appropriate isolation of the crude oil tank.

In an update on Monday, Jadestone reported that production was “safely” reinstated on 3 July 2022, following a temporary repair of the leak point in the 2C tank and its complete isolation from the production system, together with a review by NOPSEMA of the firm’s inspection and repair records relating to the FPSO Montara Venture crude oil tanks.

Paul Blakeley, Jadestone’s President and CEO, remarked: “The restart of production at Montara is significantly ahead of our initial four-week assumption, and underscores both the integrity of the FPSO following our remediation campaign in recent years as well as our response to NOPSEMA’s direction to ensure the risk to the environment is as low as reasonably possible.  

“Our teams, both onshore and offshore, have worked tirelessly to secure the vessel’s integrity and to design and implement detailed solutions which satisfy the regulator, and I thank them for their efforts.  I am also grateful to NOPSEMA for its constructive and balanced approach as we have worked to restore safe operations at Montara.”

Furthermore, the company explains that the oil contained within the 2C crude oil storage tank has now been pumped to other tanks on the vessel so that there is no threat to the environment. Jadestone confirmed that a permanent repair of the 2C tank is being advanced, with work expected to start within the next several days.  

In addition, the firm will start to execute the full inspection and remediation on the 2C oil tank, which was originally planned for July 2022, as part of its rolling tank inspection and repair programme.

“We will ensure that the lessons learned from this event are incorporated into the future operating strategy for the Montara Venture FPSO, which aims to deliver a prolonged safe operating life for the vessel in years to come,” concluded Blakeley.

Located in the Timor Sea off Australia, approximately 690 kilometres west of Darwin, the Jadestone-operated and owned Montara project includes three separate fields – Montara, Skua and Swift/Swallow – which produce through a centralised FPSO Montara Venture.