Equus is an offshore gas and condensate project in the North West Shelf, around 200km northwest of Onslow in Western Australia.
Western Gas acquired the asset from Hess Corporation in November 2017, and operates the asset with 100% interest.
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The project hosts an independently certified resource of 2 trillion cubic feet (tcf) of gas and 42 million barrels (mmbbl) of condensate.
Additionally, Western Gas plans to explore the greater Equus resource with 9tcf of risked Gas Initially in Place (GIIP).
The Final Investment Decision (FID) on Equus project is planned for 2024, with first gas expected in 2027.
Exploration
The Equus Gas Project is located in the North Shelf, a key oil and gas production basin in Australia. It features 11 gas and condensate fields in the Carnarvon Basin.
The fields are situated in the WA-390-P and WA-474-P permits, which encompass an area of more than 1 million acres. Average water depth in the region is around 3,600ft.
It is a ‘development ready’ project with more than $1.8bn spent in exploration, testing, appraisal, development, and environmental studies since 2007.
The exploration activities involved drilling 17 exploration wells that led to 15 discoveries. The activities also included drilling and testing of four appraisal wells and acquisition of 3D seismic data of more than 9,000km2.
Five wells were drilled and remains suspended for future production.
Project details
The Equus Gas Project will be developed in phases.
The first phase will include production from three wells which will be linked to a leased Floating, Production, Storage, and Offtake (FPSO) facility.
The production will be processed on-board the offshore facility with processes gas dehydration, gas compression and stripping of condensate for export.
The dry sales gas will be transported via a new offshore gas pipeline to the existing offshore Pluto A Platform located in Commonwealth waters.
From here, the gas will be exported onshore through the existing Pluto trunkline to the 2MTPA Pluto Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) facility and through Woodside’s Pluto to Karratha Gas Plant (KGP) Interconnector to KGP.
The gas from the project will also be transported by an onshore pipeline connecting to the Dampier to Bunbury Natural Gas Pipeline (DBNGP).
With other fields in production and committed to existing LNG projects, Equus Gas Project is expected to backfill LNG processing shortfalls.
Western Gas has received the support of the Western Australia Government for the development of the project and LNG export via existing infrastructure, subject to the state’s 15% Domestic Gas Policy.
Gas processing and supplies
The Equus Gas Project development concept is designed to enable processing of 300 to 500mmscf/d of gas in the KGP for LNG export and 50 to 75Tj/d of domestic gas from mid-2027 to the end of 2030 with a potential extension under consideration.
Additionally, 250 to 300mmscf/d of gas will be processed in Pluto Train 1 for LNG export when the capacity becomes available along with up to 50Tj/d of domestic gas.
Western Gas plans to deliver 2 to 3Mtpa of LNG for 10 to 20 years starting from 2027.
For the Western Australian market, the project will supply more than 50Tj/d of gas through DBNGP. This is equivalent to 75% of the residential and small business gas consumption in Western Australia per day.
Contractors involved
In December 2018, Western Gas signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with McDermott International and Baker Hughes, a GE company (BHGE), for project development services. The works included pre-FEED, FEED, as well as Engineering, Procurement, Construction, Installation, and Commissioning (EPCIC) works.
Western Gas announced the appointment of Goldman Sachs as the financial adviser with its partnering process in September 2019.
In February 2021, Western Gas signed a MoU with APA Group to conduct a joint development and marketing study on the feasibility of supplying gas from the Equus Project to Western Australia and the East Coast by a transcontinental pipeline at competitive prices.
In March 2021, Doris Engineering Australia became a partner of the Equus Gas Project.
Agreements
In December 2022, Western Gas signed a non-binding Key Principles for Gas Processing Agreement Term Sheet (Term Sheet) with North West Shelf (NWS) Project participants for producing and exporting 2-3mtpa of LNG through the KGP from 2027.
Western Gas also signed a non-binding Gas Transportation and Processing Heads of Agreement (HOA) with Pluto LNG to transport feed gas to the KGP before Pluto Train 1 becomes available.
