Timor Sea proves to be feasible prospect

The Northern Australia Gas Venture (NAGV) has confirmed that development of Timor Sea gas is technically feasible, but ultimate success depends upon capture of markets and project economics.

The 18-month study by the joint venture participants — hydrocarbon giants Woodside Energy Ltd and Shell Development Australia — investigated the production of gas from the Greater Sunrise and Evans Shoal gas fields in order to capture anticipated market opportunities in the Asian region for Liquefied Natural Gas and the Northern Territory and adjacent states for domestic gas.

The scope of the feasibility included an onshore two-train facility producing 7.5 million tonnes per annum of LNG and associated domestic gas facilities producing 400 million cubic feet per day. The study also set out to establish reserves of 11 trillion cubic feet in the gas fields.

A 480 kilometre pipeline would carry the gas, initially from the Greater Sunrise and later from the Evans Shoal fields, to Darwin.

Shell and Woodside are now working on the next phase of the project, to include environmental studies, technical data gathering and reservoir modelling.