Australian operators Cooper Energy and Beach Energy have simplified their plans for their next offshore field developments in the Otway and Bass basins, respectively.

Cooper — the operator of the producing Casino gas field in the Otway basin — said the focus of its long-planned Otway Phase 3 Development (OP3D) project will be the Annie field together with low-risk short cycle time exploration drilling, instead of the Henry discovery.

It is understood Annie will be a subsea tie-in to Cooper's subsea existing infrastructure and connecting to the upgraded onshore Athena gas processing plant.