Diamond rig set to leave Ironbark well location

Ocean Apex, a Diamond Offshore-owned drilling rig, is working on plug and abandonment activities at the Ironbark-1 well for BP with plans to demobilise underway.

The BP-operated Ironbark-1 well is located in WA-359-P in the North Carnarvon Basin offshore Australia.

The Ironbark well was spud on 31 October 2020 using the Ocean Apex rig. The rig contract was awarded in February 2019.

The well was drilled to a total depth of 5618m by 29 December 2020. The primary target interval was intersected at a depth of 5275 metres, with no significant hydrocarbon shows encountered in any of the target sands.

It was a world scale prospect in a highly prospective address but the results were disappointing.

In an update on Friday, New Zealand Oil & Gas (NZOG), one of BP’s partners, informed that plug and abandonment operations continue as planned at the Ironbark-1 well location.

Preparations to demobilise the rig are underway and this is expected to occur during the coming week, NZOG added.

NZOG said it will issue a final update for the Ironbark-1 operations following confirmation that the rig has left the location.

Participants in WA-359-P are BP (operator, 42.5 per cent), Cue Exploration (21.5 per cent), Beach Energy (21 per cent) and NZOG (15 per cent).

The exploration permit WA-359-P is located some 50 kilometres from existing North West Shelf LNG infrastructure. The Ironbark well was drilled in a water depth of around 300 meters.