IKM Testing wins Montara work from PTTEP

IKM Testing Australia, a services provider to the oil and gas industry, has been awarded a contract for the 2017 Montara shutdown by Thailand’s PTT Exploration and Production (PTTEP).  

The contract, announced by IKM on Tuesday, is for the N2 testing and flange management services.

The PTTEP-operated Montara oil and gas field, discovered in 1998, is located in Timor Sea, approximately 690km west of Darwin and 250km north-west of the Kimberley coast of Western Australia. It comprises the Montara, Skua, Swift and Swallow fields.

IKM Testing also said that, after many campaigns, it will continue to work on meeting the requirements of PTTEP.

Oil from the field is currently extracted from production wells and transported in flow lines via the Montara wellhead platform to the Montara Venture floating production storage and offloading (FPSO) vessel. The FPSO has 750,000 barrels of operational storage capacity.

Starting September 2017, PTTEP plans to undertake production drilling of one well (H5) at the wellhead platform. The drilling program is expected to last approximately 60 days but the exact timing for completion is subject to weather conditions and operational efficiencies.

Speaking of the wellhead platform, in August 2009, a blowout at the Montara wellhead resulted in an uncontrolled flow of hydrocarbons into the Timor Sea. The discharge of oil and gas was stopped on November 3, 2009. The incident lead to a $2 billion lawsuit against PTTEP by the government of Indonesia, seeking compensation for environmental damage caused by oil pollution in the Timor Sea, offshore East Nusa Tenggara, Indonesia’s southernmost province.

In an unrelated incident prevention move, Australia’s offshore petroleum safety body, NOPSEMA, less than a month ago issued an improvement notice to PTTEP Australasia regarding environmental management non-compliance associated with its Montara field operations. According to the regulator, PTTEP’s emergency management personnel was not properly trained and competent to coordinate and manage an oil spill response as required by the accepted environment plan.

Offshore Energy Today Staff