Thursday, Apr 28, 2011
SYDNEY (Dow Jones)--Apache Corp. (APA) said it plans to drill production wells in its Julimar and Brunello gas fields offshore Western Australia state from 2014 that will feed the Chevron Corp.-led (CVX) multibillion dollar Wheatstone gas-export project.
In a document posted Thursday on the website of Australia's Environment Department, Apache added that it expects commercial gas output from the Julimar and Brunello fields to start in 2016.
Apache owns a 13% stake of the Wheatstone gas development, one of the biggest proposed projects offshore Australia that will export liquefied natural gas to Asian consumers. LNG is natural gas cooled to a liquid form so it can be transported by ship.
Wheatstone has a designed capacity of 8.9 million metric tons of LNG a year from two processing units, or trains, and Chevron is weighing up an expansion to create a hub that processes other companies' gas. The project is scheduled to ship its first LNG cargo in 2016.
Apache said it plans to develop the Julimar and Brunello fields in 11 phases over 18 years in partnership with Kuwait Foreign Petroleum Exploration Co., known as Kufpec.
Initial development of the Brunello field will start with five production wells in 2014, and the life of the entire Julimar Brunello development is expected to be about 25 years, the company said.
Apache owns 65% of the WA-356-P permit area where the Brunello and Julimar fields were discovered, with Kufpec owning the remaining interest.
-By Ross Kelly, Dow Jones Newswires; 61-2-8272-4692; Ross.Kelly@dowjones.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
28-04-11 0647GMT
