PERTH (miningweekly.com) – ASX-listed Cooper Energy on Wednesday revealed growth aspirations for its offshore Otway gas hub, with new gas targeted for 2025.

Cooper Energy told shareholders that completion of the upgrade to the Athena gas plant and the cutover from the Iona gas plant to the Athena gas plant in December 2021 had secured Otway gas processing infrastructure with available capacity and direct access to south-east Australia gas customers.

The company was now planning to develop and deliver new supply through the Athena gas plant in a series of development steps. This would start with the Otway Phase-3 Development (OP3D) project, expected to enter detailed front end engineering design (FEED) in the first quarter of 2023.

A final investment decision (FID) on OP3D is targeted for the third quarter of next year, with first gas before winter 2025, and is subject to joint venture approval, Cooper Energy said.

OP3D will be based around the development of the Annie gasfield, together with low-risk short cycle time exploration drilling. This will optimise capital management and maximise economic return. The further development of Henry will be considered for inclusion in a future phase.

The Annie field alone is expected to more than double current production rates through the Athena gas plant and provide approximately five years of foundation life extension to the existing production assets. The Annie development is expected to include flexibility to allow tieback of successful low risk, high deliverability prospects, the company said.

The assessment of the Annie 2C contingent resource estimate has been upgraded to 63.5 PJ2, and the 2C contingent resource will be booked as 2P reserves when an FID is made.

Cooper Energy said on Wednesday that the impact on the company’s reserves and contingent resources from the delay in the further development of the Henry gasfield beyond OP3D, would be determined as part of the yearly review currently underway.