Cooper Energy has extended its transition agreement with APA in relation to the Orbost gas processing plant (OGPP) by 12 months.
As announced in August 2020, Cooper Energy entered into a transition agreement to provide the frameworks for commencing Sole gas sales agreements and commissioning OGPP as early as possible.
The transition agreement also provides for revenue and cost sharing mechanisms during the commissioning phase and contributions to Cooper Energy for the cost of sourcing certain back-up gas supply if required.
The transition agreement was set to expire on May 1, 2021, but Cooper has exercised its option to extend the transition agreement by 12 months to May 2022.
Last week the companies announced they were continuing to work together to improve the performance of the OGPP, with the objective of achieving nameplate capacity of 68 terajoules a day (TJ/d).
Following the reconfiguration of OGPP’s two sulphur observers in the second quarter of this financial year, it has delivered improved production rates, with average production in March hitting 42 TJ/d compared with 39 TJ/d in February.
However, Cooper advised that the periodic cleaning of the absorber is still required with six weekly cleans of each absorbers needed for OGPP to reach 45 TJ/d.
In order to reach 68 TJ/d, APA and Cooper are discussing further capital works to be undertaken this year with the objective of the program to further improve stability and to increase production rates.
The scope of works currently under consideration includes: installation of solids removal equipment to reduce fouling from solids deposition within the absorbers; changing the liquid distributor within each absorber; and installation of a polishing unit to reduce the impact of hydrogen sulphide breakthrough during foaming events.