EXTENDED production testing from two onshore oil wells near Dongara has delivered an additional 30,000 barrels to BP’s Kwinana refinery over the past two weeks.
EXTENDED production testing from two onshore oil wells near Dongara has delivered an additional 30,000 barrels to BP’s Kwinana refinery over the past two weeks.
Up to five extra road trains a day have been rolling into BP’s Kwinana refinery from the Eremia and Jingemia wells, operated respectively by Arc Energy and Origin Energy.
Jingemia has been producing 1,250 barrels per day over the past week, but is planning to step up production to 2,000 barrels per day over a three-month testing period.
The Jingemia venture has contracted rig moving experts Bonnie Rock Transport to transport the oil via pocket trains for this period, and the company said it is using different sized trains to accommodate varying loads.
Eremia is producing a daily-constrained 1,000 barrels and the combined output from this field and the nearby Hovea field has been capped at 5,000 barrels per day for up to four weeks.
Transport operator Mitchell Corporation says it will have six pocket road trains travelling to Kwinana from these fields each day during this period, the same number of trucks it has operated on this route since late January.
Origin and Arc have been delivering oil from Hovea since production testing there last October, and this was ramped up to a daily 5,000 barrels in January.
Arc executive director Alex Forcke said plans were in place to fast track the development of the Eremia field, and production testing from further wells was possible before the end of the year.
Currently trucks pick up from both Eremia and Hovea, but a possible flowline from Eremia to Hovea could mean the trucks have just one stop. However, production would most likely remain at a daily 5,000 barrels for the remainder of the year.
Arc and BP met with the Kwinana community in February, ahead of increased output, to discuss preferences for delivery to the refinery. Delivering the oil via a pipeline, or by ship from Geraldton, is not currently feasible but using the larger capacity trucks means fewer trucks on Kwinana roads.
Currently just five per cent of the refinery’s input is delivered by road transport with the rest shipped in.
A BP spokesperson said the additional output from Jingemia comprised just one per cent of crude input into the refinery.
While this may not be significant for BP, the US$21 per barrel cashflow to Jingemia’s seven partners is considered quite helpful.
