Vali Gas Field

The Vali field is an onshore gas development in Queensland, Australia.

The field is in the ATP 2021 permit, which is owned by Vintage Energy (50%, operator), Metgasco (25%) and Bridgeport (Cooper Basin) (25%).

According to Vintage Energy, Vali field is the company’s first new field discovery and first revenue generating asset.

The field was discovered in 2020. It achieved first gas in February 2023, becoming a new source of gas for Eastern Australia.

Vali Field location and reserves

The Vali field is situated in the ATP 2021 permit. The 370km² permit is located on the Queensland side of the Cooper- Eromanga Basin.

ATP 2021 permit, situated near other gas and oil fields, has the potentiality of further discoveries.

Vali has been independently certified as having proved and probable gas reserves of 101 petajoules (PJ).

The Odin gas field, discovered by Vintage in May 2021, is located around 7km from Vali.

Discovery and Appraisal

The Vali-1 ST1 well discovered gas in the Vali prospect in early 2020.

The well, drilled to a total depth of 3,217m, discovered gas in the primary Patchawarra Formation target. An assessment of the data indicated a more than 35m of interpreted log net gas pay over gross 312m interval in the primary target.

The well also identified gas and oil shows in other formations. Potential gas pay was calculated in the secondary Toolachee target and the Triassic age Nappamerri Group, and oil shows were observed in the Jurassic age Westbourne and Birkhead formations.

In 2021, appraisal wells Vali-2 and Vali-3 were drilled to confirm the extent of the gas accumulation in the Patchawarra. A new gas pool in the Toolachee Formation was also discovered.

Vali field development details

The Vali gas development will include three wells- Vali-1, Vali-2 and Vali-3. The project also included the installation of metering facilities, including separation (located adjacent to Vali-1), and flowlines connecting the field’s three wells to the metering facility.

Twin export gas pipelines from the field will transport gas through a tie-in to the Moomba gas gathering network at the Beckler gas field. The gas will be processed at Moomba facility before sale.

The installation and pressure testing of the export flowlines was completed in December 2022.

As of February 2023, Vali-1 is producing from the Patchawarra Formation. The well was completed as a dual producer with the capability to produce from the Toolachee Formation.

Commissioning at Vali-1 started with purging of the system with nitrogen to expel air and conducting multiple checks before the introduction of gas. This was followed by the commissioning of the metering facility, Beckler tie-in and export lines.

Work on the remaining two wells is continuing and they will be brought online progressively.

Gas Sale Agreement

The ATP 2021 Joint Venture has signed a long-term gas supply agreement with AGL Energy Limited.

Vali is expected to supply an estimated 9PJ to 16PJ of gas to AGL Energy from field start-up to the end of 2026.

The Vali JV is yet to enter contracts for the bulk of the field’s gas reserves as it seeks to improve its understanding of the field’s producing reservoirs over the first six to nine months of production.

This will help in preparing a full field development plan and marketing of Vali’s uncontracted gas.

Contractors involved

Verbrec subsidiary LogiCamms secured a detailed engineering contract for the connection of Vali field to the east coast gas market.

The Vali-1 ST1 fracture stimulation activities were conducted by Condor Energy Services, while GPA Engineering provided Front End Engineering Design (FEED) for Vali-1 ST1 connection.

In April 2022, Vintage Energy initiated the fracture stimulation campaign at the Vali gas field. The fracture stimulation campaign was conducted by Schlumberger and supervised by Griffin Energy Solutions.

Global Engineering and Construction served as the construction contractor for the project.

In May 2022, the ATP 2021 Joint Venture signed a tie-in agreement with the South Australian Cooper Basin (SACB) JV. This marked the completion of all commercial agreements that were required to transport gas produced from the Vali gas field to Moomba.

In February 2023, the control of the facilities at Vali-1 was passed to Upstream Production Solutions (UPS), the contractor engaged to commission, operate and maintain the infrastructure.