Esso Australia, a subsidiary of ExxonMobil Australia, has completed the Kipper Compression Project in the offshore part of the Gippsland Basin in Australia.
The project is aimed at maintaining crucial natural gas supplies for the domestic market, said ExxonMobil.
The initiative involved the installation of compression facilities on the West Tuna platform to sustain production levels as reservoir pressure in the Kipper field declines.
Esso Australia stated that the project was completed safely, with over 1,000,000 work hours invested to ensure uninterrupted gas supply and production from the Gippsland Basin and Longford Plants.
This completion enables the Gippsland Basin joint venture, a 50:50 partnership between Esso Australia and Woodside Energy, to maintain its role as a key supplier of natural gas to the Australian market, reinforcing the reliability of domestic energy resources.
ExxonMobil Australia chair Simon Younger said: “Accessing new gas supplies or maintaining gas production is not simply a matter of flicking a switch; our project and operations teams put in more than one million hours to ensure its safe completion and on schedule.”
Younger further said that the Australian government has indicated natural gas remains a crucial component of the energy grid, serving as an essential backup to renewables. He added that it would also be vital for industries such as glass, bricks, steel, fertiliser, recycling, and critical minerals, which currently lack alternative energy or feedstock options.
The ExxonMobil official also noted that over the past six decades, Esso Australia and its joint venture partners have made significant investments in Bass Strait to enhance Australia’s energy security.
In March 2022, Esso Australia reached a final investment decision (FID) to further develop the Kipper field with an estimated A$400m ($267m) investment.
The project is expected to deliver an additional 200 petajoules (PJ) of gas between 2023 and 2027, addressing winter supply risks previously forecasted by the Australian Energy Market Operator’s 2021 Gas Statement of Opportunities. This expansion is part of a broader strategy to stabilise and secure energy supplies for southern Australian states.
