Jadestone Terminates Montara FPSO Due to Problems

For the purpose of finishing up repairs to a crude oil tank on board the Montara Venture FPSO, Jadestone Energy has chosen to temporarily halt production from the Montara oil field offshore northwest Australia.

After a minor oil leak from tank 2C was discovered in June, production at Montara was subsequently restarted after an interim fix. A further internal flaw in water ballast tank 4S was discovered during the repair preparations, and this flaw has also been included to the scope of the total repair operation. The FPSO crude oil tanks and production facilities' remaining planned inspection and maintenance activities have been the major emphasis.

Although a long-term fix for tank 2C has been designed, there have been difficulties trying to integrate the growing number of inspection and repair teams alongside production activities, which have been made more difficult by weather and logistical concerns.

Jadestone will prioritize the work of the maintenance and inspection crews as the most practical and efficient way to finish the tank repairs while advancing inspection and remediation to other tanks in the FPSO by temporarily shutting down production once more and rearranging offshore manpower on the FPSO.

Production will most likely be shut down for the rest of August and maybe into September 2022 as a result of these inspection and repair tasks. It is presently estimated that adding the aforementioned action will cost an additional $2–4 million.

“A temporary shut-in of Montara production, to replace production crews with maintenance and inspection teams, is the most practical solution which will allow us to apply the necessary additional manpower to accelerate key maintenance and repair activities and restore facility integrity,” said President and CEO of Jadestone Paul Blakeley.