ExxonMobil Australia has decided to pause all of its drilling work planned for the remainder of this year due to the challenges related to COVID-19.
As a result of the unprecedented times, the company has adjusted its work plans to focus on keeping its workforce safe and maintaining its critical operations, including continuing work on the West Barracouta development.
ExxonMobil chairman Nathan Fay said he was proud of the efforts to complete the West Barracouta wells, located in the VIC/L1 block offshore Victoria, in spite of the additional pressures of COVID-19.
“The drilling program was only partly completed when we started activating our COVID-19 response. This presented significant challenges for the team, especially when you consider we needed to manage strict workforce and process restrictions on the Noble Tom Prosser drilling rig,” Fay said.
“Despite the increased challenges presented by the COVID-19 pandemic, the Australia Upstream Integrated Solutions Wells team were able to complete drilling these wells safely.”
The company has outlined it will now turn its attention to the construction of the associated gas production infrastructure that will link the West Barracouta development back to the exisiting Barracouta field, with construction set to be completed by 2021.
ExxonMobil subsidiary Esso Australia operates the Gippsland Basin joint venture on behalf of a 50-50 joint venture with BHP (Bass Strait) and Esso Australia Resources.