Otway Offshore Project

Otway Basin Victoria

As a producer of natural gas, Beach Energy is contributing towards a lower carbon future as natural gas is widely recognised in playing an important role in emissions reduction globally and in Australia. It is also a vital aspect of energy security.

Natural gas produced by Beach supplies the strong demands of Victorian homes, business and industry.

In the Otway offshore basin Beach is continuing development of natural gas reserves within existing Commonwealth offshore exploration permits and production licenses, approximately 32 to 80 km from Port Campbell, Victoria to ensure ongoing production at the Otway Gas Plant near Port Campbell.

Community engagement

Stakeholder consultation is an important part of preparing Environment Plans for this project as it contributes to our understanding of local issues and concerns, and ensures our planning manages potential impacts.

Throughout its planning for this project, Beach has continued engagement with the commercial fishing sector and other stakeholders, and is keen to hear from any community members who would like further information or have any questions.

Completion of Drilling Campaign

Project activities commenced in 2019 with assessment of seabed locations, followed by a drilling program from February 2021 to July 2022 in which one exploration well and six production wells were drilled.

Two of the new production wells (Geographe 4 & 5) have already been connected to the existing offshore-to-onshore pipeline to the Otway Gas Plant, processing gas for the Australian east coast gas market.

The drilling campaign saw outstanding safety and environmental compliance, positive engagement with the commercial fishing sector and minimal disruption to their activities, and successful management of safety and logistical challenges due to COVID-19.

Connection of Thylacine production wells

Beach has connected six new Thylacine wells to the existing offshore-to-onshore pipeline.

Seabed infrastructure includes:

Integration module of approximately 14m2 placed on the seabed near the Thylacine A platform, to be installed and connected to the platform by divers for later connection to the Thylacine production wells
Flowlines and various subsea connection modules to connect the production wells to the existing platform and pipeline
Electrical and hydraulic controls within cables that enable remote monitoring and control of the production wells.

A specialist construction support vessel used a submersed remote operated vehicle to install the seabed equipment, connect and commission the production wells which are producing natural gas for the East Coast market.