Corowa Development Offshore Project Proposal

Overview

The Corowa Development is within Commonwealth waters in offshore petroleum permit WA-41-R, located ~60 km from Onslow in the north-west of Australia, in water depths of ~90 m. KATO Energy Pty Ltd (KATO) plans to develop the Corowa field using a relocatable system known as the ‘honeybee production system’. The honeybee production system has been used successfully in many locations around the world, including offshore WA.

The ‘honeybee production system’ comprises the following key elements:

• Jack-up mobile offshore production unit (MOPU.
• Production unit on the MOPU, which will separate and process oil, gas and water.
• Wells workover module on the MOPU, which will have the capability to plug and abandon wells, and potentially to drill; however, a separate mobile offshore drilling unit (MODU) may be used
• Short flowline and riser from the MOPU to a catenary anchor leg mooring (CALM) buoy.
• Floating marine hose to transport oil.
• Moored floating storage and offloading (FSO) facility, where oil is stored; or direct to shuttle tankers (depending on export option selected).
• Floating export hose to offload oil from the FSO to export tankers.

The key components covered in this Offshore Project Proposal (OPP) for the Corowa Development are:

• Site survey of the proposed location of subsea infrastructure.
• Drilling of up to four wells.
• Installation, hook-up and commissioning of a mobile offshore processing unit (MOPU), CALM buoy and mooring arrangements, a short subsea flowline and riser, and a floating storage and offloading (FSO) facility.
• Operation of the facilities.
• Decommissioning and removal of subsea and surface infrastructure, and plug and abandonment (P&A) of the wells.

Corowa is part of a portfolio of KATO operated fields. The intent is that as each field is depleted, it is fully decommissioned, and the honeybee production system is then relocated to the next field.

The conservative project life for the Corowa Development (from mobilisation to decommissioning) is approximately five years, with a preliminary project schedule outlined in the table below.  

Draft for public comment - Corowa Development Project - February 2020

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