Asia Pacific-focused oil and gas company Jadestone said Monday it wouldn't meet its previously planned end-of-month production restart from the Montara field, off western Australia, as bad weather was hampering topside maintenance work on the Montara Venture FPSO.
The company shut down production from the Montara Venture FPSO in 2022, first to allow for repairs on a tank that leaked oil back in June through a 30-millimeter crack and then after discovering a defect in water ballast tank 4S.
On January 18, 2023, Jadestone said that DNV's independent review of Jadestone's remediation plans and operational readiness for the Montara Venture FPSO had been completed and submitted to NOPSEMA, the Australian offshore safety regulator, as required by the General Direction issued to the company in September 2022. NOPSEMA's review concluded earlier this month, and the General Direction was closed.
"Following good progress on the Montara Venture FPSO tank repairs and independent assessment of the company's operational practices, the General Direction issued by NOPSEMA was closed earlier this month," Jadestone reminded on Monday.
"This has allowed a focus on the scheduled topsides maintenance workstreams, although this activity has been impacted by recent severe weather conditions offshore Northern Australia.
"While planned progress has generally been good, several days have been lost to weather-related delays and production restart, which was previously expected by the end of February, has been impacted accordingly," Jadestone said, adding that a further announcement would be made when production resumes.