Central Petroleum is set to revive the Mereenie oil and gas field after securing Easternwell Group to re-complete four existing wells and drill two new development wells at the Northern Territory project.
Rig 27 is expected to commence site mobilisation during April, the same month the re-completions are set to start before spudding of the first development well takes place in May.
The Mereenie field activities are intended to return field production capacity back towards 45 terajoules a day (TJ/d) from the current 32 TJ/d, and produce at least an additional 45 petajoules (PJ) of gas over the lifetime of the wells.
Central outlined that this would enable the Mereenie joint venture to commit to new gas sales into what is forecast to be an increasingly tight east coast gas market.
The development activities are part of the long term Mereenie field development plan, which aims to convert undeveloped 2P reserves of more than 40 PJ into developed 2P reserves.
Central stated that the wells would be drilled as vertical wells with the same rig before it is used for re-completion activities to minimise costs and improve operational flexibility.
Following the wells being drilled, they will then be tied-in to the existing gather network, with gas production expected to be available from the first development well before July 2021.
Central managing director Leon Devaney said following the market and operational challenges of 2020, he was pleased to make progress on drilling this year.
“The Mereenie development wells, in combination with the three range pilot wells, means that Central is on track to deliver five new wells and re-complete four existing wells by mid-year,” Devaney said.