Santos progressing CCS studies offshore Western Australia

Santos has issued updates on two planned carbon capture and storage (CCS) projects offshore and onshore Australia.

The Western Australia Reindeer CCS project is in the early front end engineering design (FEED) phase, with negotiations continuing with potential clients for carbon management services.

Santos aims to use depleted gas fields offshore the state’s northwest coast for storing captured CO₂ from industries onshore in the Pilbara region. The CO₂ could be transported through repurposed offshore pipelines, such as the Devil Creek system.

Last November the company submitted a declaration of storage formation to the National Offshore Petroleum Titles Administrator.

In the Timor Sea to the north, FEED technical engineering work is virtually complete for another CCS development involving reuse of the virtually depleted Bayu-Undan gas-condensate field.

Santos is working with the Timor Leste government to put in place regulatory and fiscal frameworks, approvals, agreements with Australia, and commercial agreements to progress the development to FID readiness.

Elsewhere offshore Western Australia, the company has decommissioned four wells in recent months at the Mutineer, Exeter, Fletcher and Finucane fields.

P&A has finished at eight of the 11 wells in the current campaign, with the remainder due to be completed shortly.

Production at the FPSO Ningaloo Vision has been extended as planned, and approval has come through for operations to continue into the present quarter. Reliability at the facility has been higher than expected, despite the downtime incurred due to a tropical cyclone.

Gas production from the recently onstream Halyard-2 has also been above expectations.