PERTH (miningweekly.com) – The joint venture (JV) partners for the Waitsia Stage 2 gas project, in Western Australia, have short-listed four contractors to compete in a design competition for the front-end engineering design for the project.
The Stage 2 design would include a gas plant capable of processing 100 TJ/d, carbon-dioxide extraction, collection hubs and flow lines, ASX-listed AWE said on Thursday.
The design competition would allow the JV partners to establish a high degree of capital cost certainty and would also develop and compare engineering, procurement and construction and build-own-operate contracting models.
AWE is hoping to complete all phases of the design by the end of 2017, prior to achieving a final investment decision on the Stage 2 project.
“Waitsia Stage 2 has been making excellent progress and the JV’s decision to begin the design competition is another sign that this project is rapidly gaining momentum,” said AWE CEO and MD David Biggs.
AWE and its JV partner Origin Energy are targeting a final investment decision on Waitsia Stage 2 by the end of this year, and first gas from the project is targeted for 2020.
Biggs, meanwhile, said that AWE was also drilling Waitsia 3 appraisal wells, and was negotiating sales arrangements with a number of potential customers.