Casino

Location

VIC/P44 permit, Otway Basin, offshore Victoria, approximately 250 kilometres south-west of Melbourne in 70 metres of water.

Participants

Santos – 50% (operator)
AWE – 25%
Mitsui – 25%

Discovered

The Casino field was discovered in 2002 by the Casino 1 exploration well.

First Production

Full production commenced in February 2006.

Cost to Develop

Development cost was approximately A$200 million.

Facility Details

The Casino field has commenced production at approximately 96 terajoules per day and 96 barrels of condensate per day. The field initially has two production wells. The wells are completed with subsea trees and produce through 34 kilometres of 12 inch pipeline to the shore. The pipeline crosses the shore via a directionally-drilled crossing under the beach and then moves to the TRUenergy-owned Iona gas processing plant a further 12 kilometres inland.

The Iona gas plant receives raw gas from the Casino field converting it into sales gas and stabilised condensate. The process includes inlet facilities, gas conditioning (dehydration and dewpoint) and compression.

In addition, the plant provides the delivery of chemicals to the Casino wellheads required for flow assurance and integrity of the pipeline system.

Santos has an agreement with TRUenergy to supply up to 420 petajoules of gas over 12 years with a further option to process up to another 105 petajoules of gas at the Iona plant.

This expanded sales agreement has enabled active exploration in the block to target additional reserves. The first well, Martha 1, found gas and is the subject of further evaluation and appraisal to determine its potential commerciality. A second well, Henry 1 was drilled 8.5 km north-west of Casino and has discovered gas that is likely to be tied back to Casino to supplement the TRUenergy gas contract.

Accelerated exploration drilling activity in adjacent prospects is also planned for 2006, subject to a drilling rig being available.

The area has a high level of tourist activity being on the great Ocean Road near the Twelve Apostles rock formations. The development has therefore been carried out to strict environmental impact requirements.

Development Information

Santos has completed the development of the Casino gas field located approximately 30 kilometres offshore from Port Campbell on Victoria's south-west coast. Gas began flowing in January 2006. The Casino gas field was discovered in September 2002. Time from discovery of gas to delivery was just over 3 years, a record for an offshore Australian gas project. Estimated recoverable reserves are 290 billion cubic feet of dry natural gas. 

The Casino gas field development is essentially a pipeline development, which carries gas from offshore gas wells to the existing Iona gas plant near Port Campbell operated by TRUenergy.

Information brochures have been developed providing information on the development.

Download information brochure # 1: project inception (PDF 638 kb)

Download information brochure # 2: construction (500 kb)

Download information brochure # 3: construction (593 kb)

Environmental Approvals

The Casino gas field development was subject to a range of Commonwealth and Victorian planning and environmental approvals. Environmental studies were undertaken to assess the potential impacts on the ecology, archaeology and cultural heritage, land and marine resource use, land stability and socio-economics.

In accordance with a determination by the Victorian Minister for Planning, the environmental assessment for development was undertaken in association with the pipeline permit process under the Victorian Pipelines Act, 1967.

Santos prepared an Environment Report that was exhibited for public comment along with the pipeline permit application in May 2004. Copies of the Environment Report can be downloaded using the following link:

Download Casino Environment Report (PDF 10 Mb)

Victorian Government approval of the Environment Report was granted with the granting of the onshore pipeline licence and permit on 11 October 2004 by the Victorian Minister for Resources.

The Casino development was granted formal environmental approval by the Commonwealth Government under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act, 1999 in December 2004 based on Preliminary Documentation.

A copy of the Preliminary Documentation for the project and the approval and associated conditions may be reviewed at the Department of Environment and Heritage at www.deh.gov.au