Australian FPSO just a day shy of coming back online

Singapore-headquartered oil and gas company Jadestone Energy has disclosed its new timeline for the restart of production from a floating production storage and offloading (FPSO) vessel in the Timor Sea offshore Australia. 

The production from the FPSO Montara Venture was stopped after a gas alarm was triggered on 29 July 2023 within ballast water tank 4S, indicating possible communication with one of the adjacent tanks within the FPSO. As a result, production from the Montara fields was temporarily interrupted. The initial inspection pointed out the location of “a small defect” between tank 4S and oil cargo tank 5C. Since then, steps have been undertaken to repair the 4S/5C defect.

Following an investigation and assurance review into the 4S/5C tank defect, Jadestone now intends to restart production at Montara on 1 September 2023. The production will be restarted from one well at an expected rate of around 1,000 bbls/d to recommission the FPSO’s oil production system, followed by gas compression, allowing further wells to be brought back online within several days.

At this point, the production is expected to increase to about 6,000 bbls/d, the rate prior to the shutdown at the end of July 2023. Jadestone will continue to utilise a shuttle tanker to provide additional storage during this period of constrained FPSO storage capacity.

Moreover, the company explains that the FPSO tank inspection and repair work has continued to make progress with repairs in ballast water tank 4P almost complete, after which it will be returned to service. In addition, the inspections and preparations for repair work are now underway in tank 5C and ballast water tank 4S.

While the National Offshore Petroleum Safety and Environmental Management Authority (NOPSEMA) has been kept regularly updated on progress at Montara, Jadestone underlines that the defects encountered pose “no safety or structural risk, nor any risk of a hydrocarbon leak to sea.”

Located in the Timor Sea offshore Australia, approximately 690 kilometres west of Darwin, the Jadestone-operated and owned Montara project encompasses three separate fields: Montara, Skua, and Swift/Swallow.