Esso releases its Bass Strait plans

Press, 19 May 1984, Page 22

Esso releases its Bass Strait plans

NZPA-AAP Melbourne Esso Australia, Ltd, has revealed plans to ensure that the Bass Strait oilfields remain at peak capacity until 1986 and produce the “lion’s share” of Australia’s petroleum supplies until the end of the decade.

The plans by Esso, the operating partner in Bass Strait, include the possible introduction of mini-plat-forms, a hope that another major field will be discovered, and a search for gas supplies if the price is right. Since the Jabiru oil discovery last year, the Timor Sea region, off the northwest coast of Australia, has been presented as the nation's new oil province, but Bass Strait will still be producing oil and gas in the next 30 to 40 years even with declining production. Esso’s general manager for Bass Strait, Mr Nick Heath, said the mini-plat-forms were part of the study in new production

from the region, but a decision would not be made until the company knew the precise details of the planned resources rent tax. Once the Federal Government had published the full details of its oil taxation overhaul it would examine the economics of bringing marginally commercial fields into production. Esso believed the miniplatforms, which would allow production from smaller fields at less than half the price of conventional platforms, were feasible, he said. The Flounder oilfield, which was discovered in 1969, was now being brought into production as part of the policy of keeping output at full capacity until 1986.

Bass Strait oil production by Esso and its joint partner, the Broken Hill Proprietary Company, Ltd, will fall below the peak capacity of 400,000 barrels a

day in 1986 because of the high production in the early years from each discovery. Although 60 per cent of Bass Strait’s reserves were depleted, the other 40 per cent would take 30 to 40 years to exhaust, Mr Heath said. The Federal Government had forecast that the Gippsland Basin (Bass Strait) would “provide the lion’s share of our liquid fuels until the end of the 80s,” he said.

Mini-platforms, which cost about ?NZI42M compared to S2B4M for conventional platforms, are already used in the Gulf of Mexico and Malaysia, and it is thought could supply an extra 30M barrels from Bass Strait. But Esso did not have firm plans to introduce these platforms, which required less staff, even though the company thought they had a role to play in the future of the region, Mr Heath said.

Also, “we could still discover, and hope to discover another 100 M barrels,” he said in reference to the Fortescue discovery in 1977. Fortescue, with reserves of 280 M barrels, was a “tremendous surprise” and there was a possibility of about 30 per cent that the same thing might happen I again, he said. |