The Golden Beach gas field, just off the South Gippsland coast, is a step closer to being developed.
The owner of the gas field, GB Energy, will start drilling an appraisal well in May. The Golden Beach-2 (GB-2) well will influence the design and operation of the future production and storage wells and associated infrastructure to be installed in 2024.
Drilling will take place about 3.4 kilometres offshore from the township of Golden Beach. During the drilling operation, the jack-up drilling rig will be visible from the shoreline. A 500-metre radius safety zone will be set-up around the rig for its operational duration. The rig will be on-site for about 20 days.
GB Energy is developing the roughly $500 million Golden Beach Energy Project to provide large-scale energy storage to Australia’s east coast energy market.
The gas resource in the field is believed to hold the equivalent of 18 per cent of Victoria’s total gas consumption, but the main aim of the long-term project is to store gas rather than supply the fuel it contains.
According to the company, this will be particularly important in periods of high energy demand, when renewable energy is unable to provide sufficient capacity for the market. It will also bolster long-term supplies as gas supplies from the huge Bass Strait fields and the Longford gas plant decline.
After the initial period of production, the project’s storage of energy for domestic consumption will be five to 10 times larger than Snowy 2.0.
The field, which was originally discovered by Burmah Oil and Woodside in 1967, has suffered several delays, resulting in the project being sold on several times. GB Energy is the eighth owner.
The chief executive of GB Energy, Tim Baldwin, told the Australian Financial Review that the unique nature of the project – more of an energy storage facility rather than a gas producer – had complicated financing and approvals, despite receiving a short-term loan of up to $32 million in the 2021 May budget under the Morrison government.
“This is the first time (in the world) that anyone has looked at storage in advance of production,” he told the AFR. “That is one of the things that investors have trouble getting their head around.”
The federal government loan will fund the appraisal well to start in May.
The well, whose aim is to firm up the reservoir capacity for storage, will be followed by a final investment decision.
The Golden Beach energy storage development involves drilling offshore conventional wells using proven processes technology. In parallel, a pipeline and compressor station will also be built to connect the field to existing infrastructure near Longford. This will allow the field to supply households and businesses in Victoria and New South Wales.
GB Energy says it is committed to working with landowners and occupiers. As planning progresses and detailed timeframes are confirmed, GB Energy will consult and inform the landowners and occupiers that may be affected by the onshore pipeline proposal.
The Victorian Minister for Planning has approved GB Energy’s Environment Effects Statement (EES) for the project. The company said the EES process was a significant undertaking and underpinned the project according to environmental parameters and processes.
In addition, the project has been classified as critical energy infrastructure by the federal government, and is expected to support the market and the transition to large-scale renewable generation.
In parallel with the EES process, the Commonwealth Department of Environment and Energy has approved the project under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999.
“Likewise, this is a significant milestone in underpinning the environmental significance of the project,” the company says.
The jack-up rig being used in May is typically used to drill wells in water depths less than 100 metres; the water in this location is about 20 metres.
To put the jack-up rig in place, the rig will be towed to the location by support vessels. The three legs will then be lowered to the seabed.
Once the legs are in place on the seabed, the hull will be elevated out of the water, allowing drilling operations to start. At the end of drilling operations, the legs will be raised, allowing the rig to be towed away.
The well will be drilled vertically to a depth of about 700 metres. Once drilled and evaluated, the well will be safely and securely plugged and abandoned, in compliance with Australian regulations, the company says.
The drilling rig is unlikely to be heard from shore, barring extreme calm seas and the correct wind conditions. There are no seismic surveying operations in this drilling operation. The rig will be visible from shore and at night, the rig and drilling support vessels will be lit up.
