Oil and gas company Jadestone Energy has restored full production at the Montara field, located in the Timor Sea off Australia, following repairs.
Jadestone Energy reported on Wednesday that full production had resumed at its Montara field , explaining that production at this field was running at reduced rates in recent weeks due to an engine failure in the gas reinjection compressor.
The company says that the engine has been replaced and the gas lift reinstated, allowing for full production to be restored at rates seen immediately prior to the gas compressor fault.
Paul Blakeley , Jadestone’s President and CEO, remarked: “ A key element of our strategy to increase efficiency and uptime at Montara is availability of key spares. Having a spare gas re-injection compressor engine core on hand allowed us to effect timely repairs, thereby limiting the period of reduced production. Our offshore team has worked diligently and safely to carry out this significant maintenance activity, with full production now restored as oil prices strengthen above US$100/bbl.”
Located in the Timor Sea offshore Australia approximately 690 kilometres west of Darwin, the Montara project includes three separate fields which are Montara , Skua and Swift/Swallow , produced through a centralized FPSO Montara Venture . The field is operated and owned by Jadestone.
The operations at the Montara project involve the extraction of oil using platform production wells for the Montara field and subsea production wells for Swift, Skua and Swallow fields. Afterwards, the oil from the subsea wells is transported via subsea flowlines to an unmanned wellhead platform (WHP) and then to the FPSO Montara Venture, which acts as a hub for the Montara cluster, and potentially more stranded discoveries in the region.
This is not the first time that an issue affected the full production at the field, as it was previously shut for maintenance and inspection in November 2018, after Jadestone bought the Montara field from Thailand’s PTTEP in September 2018. The production was restarted on 11 January 2019, leading to a strong performance at the end of the same month due to a period of elevated rates, caused by significant flush production following the asset shutdown.
When it comes to Jadestone’s other activities in Australia, it is worth noting that the company’s environment plan for drilling operations at the Stag field – located offshore Western Australia – is under assessment with the Australian regulator since January 2022.
Meanwhile, Jadestone has been on the lookout for a new Chief Financial Officer (CFO) since late December 2021, as the current one intends to step down from the role to join Cooper Energy .