Peak kicks off drilling campaign
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International oil and gas well construction and services company, the Peak Group, has kicked off a unique multi-well, multi-operator management project off Western Australia’s north coast worth over $100 million.
It is the first time in Australian operations that a well construction project management company has established a shared programme for a number of different operators.
The one year, eight-well campaign, is currently at Australian junior AED Oil Ltd’s Puffin development in the Timor Sea, about 80km south-west of the Jabiru and Challis oil fields.
It will involve the drilling and completion of two development wells; Puffin-7 and Puffin-8, and the drilling of the Puffin-9 exploration well.
The Peak operation will also drill one well for Santos, one of Australia’s largest hydrocarbon producers and two for US international ConocoPhillips. Two have already been drilled for the Italian ENI energy group. All are in the Timor Sea.
“For the first time in the history of the Australian offshore oil and gas industry, a project management team has put together a multi-client programme and holds all the contracts,” Perth-based Peak Group’s Asia Pacific operations manager Nick Muecke told WA Business News.
Under the service agreement, Peak will hold the contracts for the semi-submersible drilling unit, the Stena Clyde, the supply vessels, third party service contracts, logistics and supply base services.
Mr Muecke said the rig share approach gave Peak’s clients the financial benefits and synergies of a multi-well programme normally only available to operating companies with substantial exploration and development programmes.
It also goes some way to resolving the serious dearth and cost of rigs available, particularly for the smaller operators.
AED managing director, Dr Ken Tregonning, said Peak’s securing of the rig and associated contracts, then farming them out to other operators, substantially reduced the cost and time associated with getting the Puffin project up and running.