Santos Preps for Yoorn-1 Drilling

Australian oil and gas operator Santos is planning to carry out an offshore survey in preparation for the proposed Yoorn-1 drilling in the offshore block WA-499-P, in W. Australia.

According to an application filed this week, as part of the drilling preparatory work, a vessel-based site survey will be carried out involving geophysical survey techniques to assess the shallow seabed soils suitability to provide a safe foundation for a jack-up drilling rig.

The survey activity, for which Santos on Tuesday filed an environment plan, will involve surveying the planned drilling location and tie-in lines extending from the proposed drilling location to existing data points in the nearby area.

The survey will be undertaken using multi-beam echo sounding (MBES) and side-scan sonar (SSS) data to define the bathymetry/seafloor morphology. 

Identification of any hazards that may impact the location of a jack-up rig through sub-bottom profiling (SBP) and grab sampling or drop cores for ground-truthing the surficial geophysics and support jack-up rig spud-can penetration assessments.

Water depth in the operational area ranges from approximately 40 m to 50 m. 

The activity will take place in 2020-2021. Allowing for potential downtime, for example, due to weather or vessel operability issues, the activity may extend to up to 10 days. Activities will be undertaken for up to 24 hours per day.