Australia's National Offshore Petroleum Safety and Environmental Management Authority (NOPSEMA) has advised BP that it will be taking additional time to assess the company’s environment plan proposing to drill the Stromlo-1 and Whinham-1 exploration wells in the Great Australian Bight (GAB).
NOPSEMA said it would deliver its next assessment decision by 29 September.
The first two wells BP has proposed to tap into as part of its GAB drilling program will be drilled using a semisubmersible mobile offshore drilling unit. Scheduled to commence from Q4 2016 to Q1 2017, it is anticipated that each well will take approximately 75 days.
Located approximately 600km west of Port Lincoln and 400km southwest of Ceduna, the Stromlo-1 well sits in about 2250m water depth. Whinham-1 is located approximately 600km west of Port Lincoln and 350km southwest of Ceduna, in water depth of approximately 1150m.
NOPSEMA received BP’s second environment plan to drill Stromlo-1 and Whinham-1 in August. The wells proposed in the second submission are two of the four wells that were originally proposed in the first environment plan.
BP has notified NOPSEMA that it will remove these two wells from the scope of the first environment plan prior to resubmission of that plan. NOPSEMA has granted a request from BP for an extension to the timeframe for resubmission of the first environment plan to 31 December 2016.