Offshore staff
PERTH, Australia – BHP has issued updates on its various offshore field developments.
Currently the Atlantis Phase 3 and Mad Dog Phase 2 projects in the US Gulf of Mexico are respectively 53% and 70% complete.
BHP’s Ruby project offshore Trinidad and Tobago, presently 23% complete, involves the tieback of five production wells to existing processing facilities, with capacity to produce up to 16,000 b/d of oil and 80 MMcf/d of gas.
The Bass Strait West Barracouta project off southeast Australia is on schedule for first production in the 2021 calendar year.
In light of the current disruptions to oil and gas markets and the growing risk of interruption to field activity, the company has been reviewing its capital, operating, exploration and appraisal spending programs.
This could mean potential deferral of around $200 million of non-committed exploration and appraisal expenditure in the 2021 financial year, tantamount to 30% of BHP’s average annual exploration spend over the last two years.
Various small to mid-sized projects with short lifecycles could be deferred to a later time when prices should be higher. There may be potential for further enhancing the cost competitiveness of these options, BHP said.
The company now plans to allocate $600 million to exploration and appraisal in 2020, $100 million lower than previously advised, due to slightly later timing for the start of the Phase 5 deepwater drilling campaign off Trinidad and Tobago.
04/21/2020
