The project is located in production license L1/L2 in the onshore Perth Basin, Western Australia, approximately 367km north of Perth and 16.5km east-southeast of Dongara.
AWE operates the Waitsia gas project with 50% interest while the remaining stake is held by Origin Energy Resources.
The Waitsia gas project Stage 1A has an initial production capacity of ten tera joule (TJ) of gas per day. It comprises installation of new infrastructure to connect the Waitsia-1 and Senecio-3 gas wells to the upgraded Xyris Production Facility (XPF).
AWE managing director and CEO David Biggs said: “The first gas sale from the Waitsia gas project represents a major milestone for AWE.
“The Waitsia gas field was discovered less than two years ago and we moved quickly to appraise the asset ahead of a Final Investment Decision (FID) for Stage 1A in January 2016.
“Engineering and construction work was completed on schedule, and first gas achieved less than nine months after FID on time and within budget.”
AWE said that the start of gas sales marks the first step towards full field development of the Waitsia gas project.
The engineering, execution and management cost of Stage 1A of the project is valued at $18m.
The company now plans to move towards Stage 2 development of the project. This is expected to increase production capacity of the project to up to 100 TJ/d.
With the development concept selection process underway for Stage 2, AWE plans to drill two new appraisal/production wells in calendar year 2017.
