Oz Senex to Triple Output by 2022
Australian oil and gas explorer Senex Energy March 11 said its production is forecast to triple from fiscal 2019 (July-June) levels to more than 3.6mn barrels of oil equivalent in fiscal 2022.
“The high quality, low-cost nature of our Surat and Cooper Basin assets, together with our best-in-class execution capability, has enabled Senex to deliver a transformation in our business,” Senex CEO Ian Davies said while speaking at the company’s investor briefing. “Senex’s robust balance sheet, proactive hedging strategy and approach to gas contracting provide Senex with resilient cash flows to support the execution and ramp-up of our Surat Basin gas development projects.”
The company said that Roma North in Queensland's Surat Basin has now reached the plant’s initial capacity milestone of 16 terajoules (TJ)/day, more than 12 months ahead of schedule. Senex added it has completed the Roma North drilling campaign, with just 35 wells of the originally planned 50 wells required to reach initial plateau production. Fiscal 2020 production guidance has been re-affirmed at 1.8-2.0mn boe, Senex said.
At Atlas, also in Surat Basin, Senex said it reviewed the initial production performance of the initial 23 wells drilled and leveraged learnings from Roma North. This has resulted in a reduction to the number of wells required to reach initial plateau production from the originally planned 60 wells to 50 wells, it said.
After the reduction of 25 wells and the inclusion of Atlas water treatment infrastructure, Senex expects net capital expenditure for its Surat Basin capital programme to reduce by around A$15mn (US$9.77mn), within original capital expenditure guidance.
“This expansion project promises to be low-risk with fast cash returns given the modular processing facility design, more than 20 years of 2P reserves coverage at 24TJ/day, and ready land access and other approvals.
“Careful progression through FEED demonstrates both Senex’s disciplined approach to capital investment and the low-risk high-return opportunities within our current portfolio,” Davies said.