The national petroleum regulator has given Santos the green light for the Van Gogh infill development phase two project offshore Western Australia.
Santos operates the Van Gogh, Coniston and Novara fields via a floating, production, storage and off-take (FPSO) facility, the Ningaloo Vision (NV).
The Van Gogh, Coniston and Novara drilling and completions environment plan (EP) covers a five-year drilling campaign to drill up to six additional wells in the licence area WA-35-L and WA-55-L.
The EP was accepted by the National Offshore Petroleum Safety and Environmental Management Authority (NOPSEMA) in November 2016, leading to two production wells being drilled under the EP in 2018.
In January the company submitted its proposal for the development to NOPSEMA for assessment.
Santos has now been approved to drill three additional dual lateral wells under the same drilling EP, with installation activities to tie the new wells back to the NV production facility.
The company’s scope of the EP covers the installation activities needed to tie in the three new dual lateral wells into the existing infrastructure at Drill Centre 1 (DC1) and Drill Centre 2 (DC2).
Santos awarded Go Offshore a contract to support the Van Gogh drilling campaign, scheduled for the second quarter of 2021, in December last year.
As part of the contract, the AHTS Go Spica vessel will perform anchor handling and supply operating supporting the Valaris MS-1 semi submersible drilling rig.
The infill project began in September 2018 and involved drilling and completing two subsea wells and connecting them into existing offshore infrastructure.
In January 2019, Santos announced first oil from the Van Gogh infill project, marking the completion of the two-well program that would increase production from the field.