Australian oil and gas company Beach Energy has delivered first gas from the Thylacine West 1 and 2 development wells following successful connection to the Otway Gas Plant in Victoria.
The Thylacine West development wells are located approximately 70 kilometers south of Port Campbell at a water depth of approximately 100 metres.
The field is connected to the Thylacine subsea network via a 4.2 kilometre, 8-inch flowline.
“First gas from Thylacine West marks completion of the largest ever offshore drilling and development program in the Otway Basin, a major achievement for Beach.
“The Thylacine West development wells have provided a material increase in well deliverability for the Otway Gas Plant. With the market regulator AEMO continuing to forecast gas supply shortfalls on the East Coast in the near-term, Thylacine West is a critical and timely source of new gas supply for our customer and domestic users.
“This project is another important step toward delivery of Beach’s near-term growth objectives. I thank our staff, contractors and valued stakeholders for the safe completion of the Thylacine West development,” said Brett Woods, Managing Director and CEO of Beach Energy.
Project activities started in 2019 with assessment of seabed locations, followed by a drilling program from February 2021 to July 2022 in which one exploration well and six production wells were drilled.
Two of the new production wells - Geographe 4 and 5 - have already been connected to the existing offshore-to-onshore pipeline to the Otway Gas Plant, processing gas for the Australian east coast gas market.
The following phase of activities included installation of additional seabed infrastructure to connect the four new Thylacine production wells to the existing offshore-to-onshore pipeline.