After reviewing the milestones and achievements of last year, the company has concluded 2023 was overall a good year on many aspects.
“I am pleased to report that during this quarter, total production increased 3 per cent on the previous quarter and 12 per cent on the same period in financial year 2023 (FY23),” Cooper Energy chief executive officer Jane Norman said.
“This was driven by strong production from Orbost, which itself was 9 per cent higher than the previous quarter excluding the shutdown period in December. We are now realising positive outcomes from our Orbost Improvement Project, with further initiatives still underway.
“This has had a substantial impact on our revenue which increased 8 per cent on the previous quarter.”
Regarding the BMG decommissioning, Helix Q7000 on site and progressing through program.
“The Helix Q7000 vessel has commenced the BMG wells decommissioning work at the first well, Basker-3,” Norman said.
“While we are making progress with the scope of work, disappointingly that progress has been significantly slower than planned.”
This is due to the late arrival of the Helix Q7000 at the BMG field according to Norman, together with start-up activities in the field taking longer than planned, consumed the budgeted contingency.
The slow progress now experienced on Basker-3 decommissioning work to date, required us to reforecast the programme for the remaining six BMG wells.
“We will continue to work with our contractors, in particular Helix, to pursue savings to offset increased costs, including implementing operational learnings and efficiencies and simplifying the scope of decommissioning,” Norman said.
Norman announced that Cooper also just secured a new gas sale agreement with EnergyAustralia to supply 5 petajoules/year for three years commencing January 2026.
“On a positive note, this quarter we secured a new gas sales agreement with a long-term foundational customer, EnergyAustralia,” she said.
“We also achieved a successful price review outcome on our Visy Glass agreement.”
According to Norman, these agreements signify the continued importance of gas in the current economy, to homes and businesses.
“Our domestic gas supplies play a pivotal role in providing industrial heat and feedstock to manufacturers and flexible energy to support further integration of intermittent wind and solar into our electricity network.”
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