Joint venture partners Santos and Carnarvon Petroleum are close to finalising the pre-front end engineering design (pre-FEED) phase of the Dorado oil project offshore Western Australia.
Carnarvon, in a September quarter update, reported that the current pre-FEED work at the Bedout Basin project involves the commercial and technical evaluation of the floating production storage and offloading (FPSO) and wellhead platform tenders.
By the end of the quarter, the partners had made good progress towards starting FEED activities and are on track for a final investment decision in 2021, subject to business decisions.
The JV completed a significant portion of the pre-FEED during the September quarter, particularly for the well head platform and FPSO.
Carnarvon managing director Adrian Cook said the JV also made good progress on sub-surface work, including the declaration of location over the Dorado field.
“The initial Dorado development is planned to consist of a 16-slot WHP with a FPSO vessel handling oil production and gas injection, with up to 10 wells considered in the base case development concept,” he said.
“A location declaration over the Dorado field was approved by the regulatory authorities during the quarter, another important step in relation to necessary legislated requirements to progress to first oil.”
A pre-FEED competition for the FPSO is well advanced, with the JV in the final stages of deciding on a preferred contractor.
Santos is operator and 80 per cent owner of Dorado, with Carnarvon holding the remaining 20 per cent interest.
Dorado, 160km north of Port Hedland, was discovered in mid 2018.