100s attend meetings about gas, oil drilling
A public participation process for the environmental application by TotalEnergies South Africa and other shareholders for the proposed Brulpadda oil and gas project has been held in Mossel Bay.
The first meeting took place on Monday 16 January in the community hall in KwaNonqaba, and the second on Tuesday 17 January at the Mossel Bay Town Hall. More than 400 residents attended the KwaNonqaba meeting and more than
200 residents attended the meeting for the morning slot in Mossel Bay. Another meeting was also held later that same day.
The Luiperd-Brulpadda project involves the development of the Luiperd and Brulpadda gas condensate fields located on Block 11B/12B in the Outeniqua Basin, 175km offshore.
The Brulpadda field, containing a large volume of gas condensate, was discovered in February 2019.
The Luiperd-1X discovery well was spud to a total depth of about 3 400m with the Deepsea Stavanger rig in 1 800m of water in August 2020. Spud refers to the early
stages of drilling when rock, dirt, and other sedimentary materials are removed with a drill bit. First, a larger bit is used to form the well, and then a second bit is put in place to do the main drilling.
Project description
According to a non-technical report
that was presented to residents in Mossel Bay, six wells will be drilled offshore in the project development area. The wells will be connected by installing subsea manifolds and flowlines.
These will be connected to the existing PetroSA F-A Platform at Block9 via a 109km long subsea production pipeline.
Production is expected to last approximately 20 years.
The outcome of the ongoing commercial negotiations (including agreements for the sale of the gas) should determine the use of the gas.
The exploration programme may include exploration and appraisal drilling, including associated activities such as vertical seismic profiling, well logging and (flow) testing, as well as sonar surveys, seafloor sampling and metocean buoy mooring.
Offshore support to the exploration and production activities will be by support vessels, departing from the ports of Mossel Bay, Gqeberha and/or Cape Town, through port and associated offshore infrastructure facilities. Helicopters will operate from the George airport to support offshore activities. Logistics, laydown areas and support will be undertaken from Mossel Bay port using port infrastructure and facilities for all offshore activities.
Last night, Wednesday 18 January, an information meeting for the public of George was held at the Thembalethu Community Hall. Read more about this in next week's