Central Petroleum, with joint venture partner Incitec Pivot, has confirmed that the Range gas project in the Surat Basin, Queensland will be restarted.
The Range JV will restart activities required to reach a final investment decision (FID), including a three-well appraisal pilot program targeted to be drilled in the first half of 2021, as well as approvals and permits for project development.
The current project schedule is targeting FID at the end of 2021, subject to the success of pre-FID activities.
Central reported that the JV completed a gas exploration program in 2019 which exceeded expectations and facilitated a development rendering 2C resource certification of 270 petajoules (PJ), 50 per cent higher than anticipated.
Following the operational and financial uncertainty caused by the COVID pandemic and a severe downturn in global energy markets, the Range JV agreed in March 2020 to pause pre-FID activities for the project.
Central chief executive officer Leon Devaney said the company is pleased to be restarting the Range gas project with its partner Incitec Pivot.
“The new gas sale agreement and restructured finance facility announced last week, combined with continued resilience in term gas markets, give us the flexibility and confidence to restart Range. This is a major area of growth for Central which we believe will be a very competitive new source of gas for the east coast market when the project comes onstream in 2023,” Devaney said.
“Combined with a multi-tcf prospect at Dukas, an exciting exploration program in the Amadeus Basin, good progress toward a preferred farm-out partner, and a proposed Amadeus to Moomba gas pipeline (AMGP), we have a significant amount of value-adding activity to look forward to.”
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