Australia’s Arrow Energy, the joint venture between Shell and PetroChina, said on Monday it would begin the front-end engineering design work on an expansion of its Tipton gas project in Queensland’s Surat Basin.
The expansion would boost capacity at Tipton to more than 80 terajoules (TJ) a day from 33 TJ/day.
Arrow said it is looking into ways to get the fuel into the east coast gas market, which faces shortages in the next two years.
“This project continues the development of the Arrow resource which will see more gas in the market,” said Arrow Energy chief executive Qian Mingyang .
The Tipton expansion FEED contract would be awarded within weeks through the company’s engineering master service agreement.
“The planned expansion of Arrow’s Tipton operations is expected to involve 90 new wells in the initial phase and another 180 wells over the next 25 years – along with new gathering lines, an upgraded water treatment facility and four new compressors,” Mingyang said.
Together, with the previously announced expansion projects, Daandine, PtL and Tipton, the newest expansion would bring Arrow’s Surat gas production to more than 170 TJ/d, for both domestic and export use.
“They represent a strong commitment by Arrow to the development of its Surat Basin reserves despite challenging economic conditions,” the statement reads.
Mingyang said that Arrow’s shareholders would consider a final investment decision once FEED was complete.
He said that in addition to these expansion activities, collaboration with industry proponents would be important in bringing Arrow’s sizeable gas reserves into the east coast gas market.
“I am expecting that we will reach agreement on a path to market for the majority of Arrow’s Surat Basin gas reserves later this year.”
Worth mentioning, Shell and PetroChina, shelved the multi-billion Arrow LNG project back in 2015 in the wake of the oil price slump.
The Arrow LNG project involved a liquefaction facility on Curtis Island able to produce up to 18 mtpa of LNG.
LNG World News Staff