POLICY

No major environmental incidents in NT despite increased activity

THERE has not been a single envirommntal  incident related to an oil and gas development in the Northern Territory in the past three months.

No safety incidents in the Top End

No safety incidents in the Top End

It was a busy quarter for operators in the Beetaloo, McArthur and Amadeus Basins, with wells being drilled and fracced by Origin Energy, Santos, and Empire Energy.
 
Central Petroleum also geared up for its current drill program while production continued at its four conventional producing assets. 
 
The latest report from the Northern Territory government showed that despite increased activity across onshore oil and gas fields, there were no significant environmental incidents. 
 
Origin Energy - which fracced its Amungee well, drilled, fracced and tested its Kyalla 117 N2 well, as well as drilled and fracced the Velkerri 76 S2 well - reported  no incidents. 
 
Its legacy well Kalala S-1 which was drilled in 2015 was also monitored with no issues. 
 
Empire Energy, which recently fracced its first horizontal well,Carpentaria-1 nd flow tested it with great success, also prevented any incidents over the January to March period.
 
Fellow Beetaloo explorer Santos was also given the green tick for its environmental focus during its operations. 
 
Central Petroleum - the only major producer in the NT - conducted drilling across operating licence OL3 and OL4, production licences PL6 and PL7, and exploration permit EP82. 
 
The report said no incidents had occurred during these activities. 
 
At Central's producing fields it was a similar story, with both the Dingo gas field and Surprise oil field in PL6 and PL7 respectively operating in line with environmental regulations. 
 
However, there were some small issues at Central's Mereenie oil and gas field. None of the incidents were considered significant and were quickly rectified, according to Central. 
 
In January a level control valve at the treatment plant failed. 
 
"[The] volume of gas released was not able to be calculated as its unknown when the level controller failed however inspections occur daily," Central said. 
 
The company said it rectified this by adjusting spring tensions in the valve. 
Then in March, there was a minor oil spill of less than half a litre from a joint in a pipe at the plant. 
 
The contaminated soil was removed and disposed of.
 
That same month, Central discovered a pinhole corroded section of a disused pipeline which still had some oil in it. Central estimated the spill was under 5 litres and disposed of the contaminated soil. 
 
It clamped the corrosion point to contain further leaks. 
 
Central had one other small incident, at its Palm Valley gas field. 
 
In January, 500 litres of oily water escaped a storage tank covering approximately 200 square metres. 
 
The company immediately deployed its spill response team and removed and disposed of contaminated soil. 
 
"[The] area continues to be monitored and micro-blaze added to facilitate continued degradation of oil," Central said. 
 

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