Santos: First Well of Bayu Undan Infill Drilling Program Beats Output Forecast

Just a few days after it said a new well at its Van Gogh offshore oil field in Australia had achieved a production record, Australian oil and gas firm Santos is back with more positive news when it comes to its output.

Santos, as the operator of the Bayu-Undan field in the Timor Sea, said Wednesday that that production from the Phase 3C infill drilling program at the field had begun with the first well producing "a better than anticipated outcome."

"The first well has been brought online at 178 million standard cubic feet per day (mmscfd) of gas and 11,350 barrels per day (bbl/d) of liquids, significantly increasing liquids production to over 25,000 bbl/d from the field and increasing offshore well capacity for supply of gas to the Darwin LNG plant," Santos said.

The Noble Tom Prosser jack-up rig, owned by Noble Corp., has now started drilling the second of the three wells, with the program expected to be completed early next year and will maximise value from the Bayu-Undan field.

Santos Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer Kevin Gallagher said: “We are delighted to see first production from the 3C program, which is immediately delivering value to both the Bayu-Undan Joint Venture and the people of Timor-Leste and importantly helps extend the life of Bayu-Undan and the jobs and investment that rely on it."

“Following the successful result from the first of the Van Gogh Phase 2 infill wells, today’s results are another example of Santos creating incremental value from acquired assets," he said.

Santos became the operator of the Bayu-Undan in May 2020, after the completion of the acquisition of ConocoPhillips’ northern Australia and Timor-Leste assets.

“We’ve seen a better than expected reservoir outcome with this first well of the campaign, with successful results across both the primary and secondary targets in the well and a much higher initial gas production rate than expected," Gallagher further said of the infill drilling campaign.

The drilling and tie-in of the first of three new wells come six months after a Final Investment Decision and has lifted natural gas and liquids production for the field in Timor-Leste offshore waters.

Santos has a 43.4% operated interest in Bayu-Undan. The remaining interest is held by SK E&S (25%), INPEX (11.4%), Eni (11%), JERA (6.1%), and Tokyo Gas (3.1%).

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