Arrow Energy, the 50-50 joint venture of Shell and PetroChina, has announced that it will undertake the front-end engineering design (FEED) phase for a proposed major expansion of its Tipton gas project in Queensland’s Surat Basin (Australia).
The planned expansion of Arrow’s Tipton operations is expected to involve 90 new wells in the initial phase and another 180 wells over the next 25 years and will more than double production capacity from Tipton, from 33 TJ/d to more than 80 TJ/d (from 0.9 mcm/d to 2.1 mcm/d). The extra capacity of more than 17 PJ/year (454 mcm/year) will help fill the expected shortage in the east coast gas market (between 10 and 54 PJ, i.e. 267 mcm to 1.4 bcm) between 2019 and 2024.
This expansion project follows a recent major investment by Arrow Energy in the Surat Bastin, including the Daandine expansion project (commissioned in late 2016) and commencement of its Produce the Limit (PtL) project earlier in, to expand capacity at its Daandine and Tipton fields. Overall, Arrow Energy will raise the current Surat production by up to 30%.