The seven-well Otway Basin 1 drilling campaign was the largest in the basin’s history and delivered one new gas discovery at the Artisan Field and six successful development wells in the Geographe and Thylacine fields.
ADELAIDE, South Australia — Beach Energy Ltd. has successfully completed its offshore Otway Basin1 drilling campaign offshore Australia.
Drilling commenced in February 2021 and concluded with the final well of the campaign, Thylacine North 2, completed in July 2022.
The seven-well campaign was the largest in the basin’s history and delivered one new gas discovery at the Artisan Field and six successful development wells in the Geographe and Thylacine fields.
Results were at or above pre-drill expectations.
Courtesy Beach Energy
Completion of the drilling campaign is a key building block and milestone in delivering Beach’s production target of 28 MMboe in fiscal year 2024. Commissioning of the Geographe development wells in third-quarter 2022 contributed to an increase in Otway Gas Plant average daily production from 52 TJ/day in third-quarter 2021 to 140 TJ/day in fourth-quarter 2022.
Connection of the four Thylacine development wells by mid-2023 is expected to enable the Otway Gas Plant to produce at full nameplate capacity of 205 TJ/day, with this gas to be sold into existing contracts. This increase in production is coming at a time when new gas supply for the east coast market is desperately needed.
Pipeline connections and tie-in of the Thylacine wells are expected to commence in second-quarter 2023 post the winter period. All wells are expected online by mid-2023.  Â
Courtesy Beach Energy
Key highlights from the drilling campaign include:
Beach’s first extended offshore drilling campaign, delivered safely, on schedule and on budget;
Beach was the only Australian offshore operator to drill continuously through the COVID-19 pandemic;
More than 820,000 operational hours to deliver the campaign, with the campaign receiving the 2021 IADC Safety Award recognizing outstanding safety performance;
Longest horizontal well drilled in the Otway Basin (Thylacine North 2 lateral section of 3.5 km);
Longest horizontal campaign in the Otway Basin (three horizontal wells with total lateral section of 8.1 km); and
First gas from the two Geographe development wells delivered in less than nine months from spud.
