The restart of the Montara oil field follows an extensive maintenance and inspection shut down undertaken by the company, which acquired it from Thailand-based PTT Exploration and Production Public Company (PTTEP) for $195m last year.
In November 2018, a decision was taken to halt production at the oil field as per the direction issued by Australia’s National Offshore Petroleum Safety and Environmental Management Authority to PTTEP owing to certain operational issues.
Jadestone Energy revealed that the facilities are going through final stages of pressure testing for ensuring asset integrity and a safe restart of production.
The firm said that it has completed leak test of the oil train of the Montara project and that the gas train is currently being evaluated to enable simultaneous restart of the two trains. This would allow for immediate gas-lift and gas re-injection in order to streamline production operations, as quickly as possible, said the Singapore-based oil and gas company.
Jadestone Energy said that the documentation needed for the removal of the various improvement notices, prohibition notice and direction letter from the NOPSEMA, are in the process of being assessed by the regulator to enable the facility to restart production.
The company expects a close-out within days and believes that the completion of the maintenance and inspection activity will yield enhanced facility reliability and uptime going forwards, resulting in no major planned shutdowns until at least the second half of 2020.
Jadestone Energy president and CEO Paul Blakeley said: “I’m pleased that the shutdown of the Montara assets has been safely concluded, which now completes all overdue inspection and maintenance items which we identified during the initial weeks after closing the transaction with PTTEP.
“During the shutdown, Montara personnel logged more than 9,000 hours of work, all executed without a single safety incident.
“This is a testament to the calibre of expertise on the asset and the leadership we have now seconded into the Montara organisation, and a key early step toward embedding the Jadestone operating philosophy and safety culture on the asset.”
