COMMERCIAL production has commenced at the Mutineer-Exeter oil development in the offshore Carnarvon Basin about 150 kilometres north of Dampier, in which Woodside Petroleum has an 8.2 per cent stake. The project is expected to produce between 70,000 and 90,000 barrels of oil per day during the initial start-up phase but is designed to produce 100,000 barrels per day when fully operational.
The project was delivered three months ahead of schedule and approximately 10 per cent under budget.
Four horizontal wells will be used to extract the oil to a floating production, storage and offloading facility.
This processing vessel has been leased by the joint venture partners in a contracted services agreement that covers the supply of the vessel, maintenance, production operations, demobilisation and abandonment at the end of the field life.
The first cargo of oil from Mutineer-Exeter has been sold under a marketing agreement with BP at a premium to the Tapis crude oil benchmark.
The operator of the project is Santos, holding a 33.4 per cent interest.
