Carnarvon gears up for Buffalo drilling
Firm will drill first well offshore Timor-Leste in the second half of this year
Australian independent Carnarvon Petroleum is preparing to drill its first well offshore Timor-Leste following the acquisition of a 50pc stake in the Buffalo field redevelopment by UK-headquartered Advance Energy. In return, Advance will fund drilling of the Buffalo-10 well for up to $20mn on a free-carry basis. The two companies aim to bring Buffalo, which lies in the prolific North West Shelf (NWS) oil and gas region, back onstream nearly 20 years after it was decommissioned. Australia’s BHP and Canada’s Nexen—since acquired by Chinese NOC Cnooc—originally operated Buffalo but took it offline in 2004 after production fell from a peak of 45,000bl/d to 4,000bl/d. 40,000bl/d – Level to
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