Australia’s Coniston crude field starts producing

OREANDA-NEWS. Australia's offshore Coniston crude field began production yesterday at an average rate expected at 18,000 b/d during its first year.

Coniston is operated by US independent Apache that has a 52.5pc stake, with the remainder owned by Japanese upstream firm Inpex. The field is located 6km north of the 9,000 b/d Van Gogh field and 15km northwest of the 10,000 b/d Ravensworth field, offshore Western Australia.

Output from Coniston will be processed and stored at the floating production, storage and offloading vessel servicing Van Gogh, also owned by Apache and Inpex. The partners are also exploring for more oil in the offshore WA-35-L block. Coniston covers a 45km? area in the WA-35-L and WA-55-L blocks.

Inpex has been increasingly investing in upstream oil and gas assets, targeting to boost its overseas output to above 1mn b/d by the early 2020s. It currently produces around 400,000 b/d of oil equivalent, including 240,000 b/d of crude, condensate and LPG. Inpex last month won a 5pc stake in Abu Dhabi's new 40-year Adco oil concession, which is expected to add around 80,000 b/d to the firm's output.