EOG Resources Australia Block WA-488 Pty Ltd (‘EOG’) is the titleholder of permit WA-488-P, located in Commonwealth waters of the Joseph Bonaparte Gulf off the northern Western Australian (WA) coastline.
EOG proposes to drill the Beehive-1 exploration well, situated in a water depth of 40 m and located 80 km off the WA coastline and 300 km southwest of Darwin in the Northern Territory. The activity is scheduled to commence no earlier than 1st of January 2024 and will be completed no later than 31st of December 2025 (the exact timing is dependent on the receipt of environmental approvals and the availability of a mobile offshore drilling unit [MODU]) and is expected to take between 55 and 100 days. A 500 m Petroleum Safety Zone will be established around the well for the duration of the drilling program.
The following phases summarise the planned drilling activity:
• Move the MODU to location, position MODU, pre-load and jack-up to operational elevation;
• Drill conductor hole and run conductor;
• Drill surface hole section;
• Run and cement surface casing;
• Install surface wellhead and blowout preventor;
• Perform pressure test;
• Drill intermediate hole section(s);
• Run and cement intermediate strings;
• Drill remaining sections to well total depth;
• Run well evaluation program (wireline logging, sidewall cores, formation testing, vertical seismic profiling, possibly a drill stem test [DST]);
• Plug and abandon the well; and
• Demobilise the MODU.
Operations will be conducted 24 hours per day, 7 days per week using a jack-up MODU. Beehive-1 will be drilled as a vertical well to target the Sunbird and Tanmurra formations, with a planned total depth of 5,090 m. Only water-based muds will be used to drill the well. Well evaluation involving DST (and associated flaring) is planned if the well successfully finds hydrocarbon pay in the target formation(s) which warrants such testing. At the completion of drilling, Beehive-1 will be plugged and abandoned with no equipment remaining on the seabed.
The MODU will be supported by two support vessels used to transport equipment to and from the MODU. Helicopters will be used for crew changes several times per week.
Source: NOPSEMA
