A BP-led joint venture has finalised a series of agreements to drill the large Ironbark-1 gas prospect off Western Australia.

The joint venture partners have previously contracted the semi-submersible drilling rig Ocean Apex for a late-2020 assignment at Ironbark, which has a best estimate of 15 trillion cubic feet of prospective recoverable gas.

Completion of the Ironbark agreements confirms that BP is the operator of Block WA-359-P with a 42.5%