Santos paints a masterpiece at Aussie offshore oilfield

Australia's Santos said it has generated a record production rate from the first of three new wells at its Van Gogh oilfield offshore Western Australia.

The well produced at a peak rate of 23,200 barrels per day, well ahead of expectations for a single well, and the highest initial rate from an individual well in the field's history.

Drilling of the second horizontal, dual-lateral production well is now under way using the semi-submersible Valaris MS1, with additional production expected before the end of this year.

The Van Gogh field in Block WA-35-L is one of three subsea oilfields tied in to the Ningaloo Vision floating production, storage and offloading vessel.

Santos chief executive Kevin Gallagher said: “The team has done a great job delivering first oil so quickly, accessing additional reserves and lowering unit production costs.

“We have seen an excellent reservoir outcome from this first well with a larger oil column than expected and a total horizontal section of 5430 metres, which is 490 metres more than originally planned.

“The Van Gogh crude oil is also a highly sought-after product, and the premium to Brent that we get allows further value to be realised beyond the current oil price.”

Production from Van Gogh began in 2010, with the nearby Coniston and Novara fields tied back to the FPSO in 2015 and 2016, respectively.

Santos has a 52.5% operated interest in the project with the remaining equity held by Inpex.