Offshore staff
MELBOURNE, Australia – Santos has advised Nexus Energy that production has been suspended at the Patricia-Baleen gas processing facility in the Gippsland basin offshore Victoria. This follows a series of interruptions caused by an intermittent electrical fault.
The facility receives gas via a pipeline from Bexu’s offshoreLongtom field, also taking in supplies along the way from the Patricia and Baleen fields.
Outage is expected to continue until the fault has been pinpointed and fixed via an offshore intervention program. The location of the fault could be within the Santos or Nexus offshore facilities.
A vessel has been mobilized and is scheduled to arrive at the field on June 15, depending on weather, to start inspection and rectification work.
Since the onshore Orbost plant was upgraded in October 2010, gas production reliability has averaged 98%.
Gas is sent though the eastern gas pipeline connecting the Melbourne and Sydney gas markets, while condensate is trucked and sold to the Shell refinery in Geelong.
6/8/2012
