Kipper

The Kipper Gas Project is located in the Gippsland Basin, 45 kilometresoff the coast from Ninety Mile Beach, in south east Victoria. The project,that is part of the wider Kipper, Tuna, Turrum project lies in 100 metres of sea water in Bass Strait. The Kipper Project was developed to sub-sea tieback the Kipper resource gas production wells to existing processinginfrastructure owned by the Gippsland Basin Joint Venture. The gas istaken from there, through the existing West Tuna platform, to a processing facility onshore at Longford.

The Kipper gas resource is jointly owned by Santos Corporation with a 35 percent shareholding, ExxonMobil Corporation with 32.5 percent and BHPBilliton with 32.5 percent.

Kipper Gas Field is The Largest in the Gippsland Basin

The Kipper gas field is the largest in the Gippsland Basin with a confirmed recoverable gas resource of 620 billion cubic feet. The resource also contains about 610 petajoules of fuel and flare gas (sales gas). It also has, in reserves, the equivalant 30 million barrels oil, in liquid petroleum gas and recoverable condensate. The Kipper field, that is expected to have a production life of 15 years, was discovered in 1986.

Kipper Project Natural Gas to be Processed Onshore at Longford

The onshore facility at Longford, where the Kipper gas is to be processed,comprises one crude oil stabilisation plant and three gas processing plants. Work is well underway on a new gas conditioning plant being constructed at Longford with completion expected and the plant becoming fully operational in 2016.

Gas production commenced from the Kipper, Tuna and Turrum gas development project, in Bass Strait, in October 2013. Natural gas flowedfirst from the Tuna gas field through two new pipelines while oil was being sourced from the Turrum field through a new Marlin B platform. TheKipper, Tuna and Turrum oil and gas fields have sufficient reserves to beable to supply energy to a city of one million people for a minimum of 35years.

The Kipper project created a total of 1,300 jobs during its construction and installation stage and production from the project will go a long way to maintaining current gas production levels coming from Bass Strait fields, as has been the 'norm' for more than 40 years. Esso Australia, a fully owned subsidiary of ExxonMobil Corporation, is the operator of the Kipper operation.

Kipper Project Conditioning Plant at Longford to be Operational in2016

The gas conditioning plant at Longford will become operational in 2016when it will begin delivering 1.6 trillion cubic feet of natural gas into the Australian market. The construction of the plant has been a major part of the Kipper Project and has created 250 construction jobs as well as many indirect work opportunities. The new gas conditioning plant is being constructed alongside the existing Longford gas conditioning facilities near the town of Sale. The existing facilities have been in operation for the last 40 years but are unable to treat the natural gas coming from the Kipper Tuna and Turrum resource because of it having a different composition to natural gas originating from other sources that was previously being conditioned at the plant.