About Us
KATO Energy is an Australian company, focused on identifying and developing marginal oil fields in the North West Shelf of Australia. Kato Energy has been incorporated following a three-way merger, to combine 100% ownership of the Corowa and Amulet oil fields (our Foundation Fields), with the aim to expand further in the not too distant future.
Our development strategy is to identify, acquire, develop and operate small fields which are currently ‘stranded’
Insufficient hydrocarbon resource to warrant stand-alone development
Oil - typically 4-8MMstb recoverable
Highly prolific reservoirs
No local infrastructure
Harsh environments / water depths <100m
Key to commercially developing the marginal oil fields is the ability to share infrastructure between each field. Significant work has been performed to design and understand the details of a mobile development concept, referred to as Honeybee. We will utilize the mobile “honeybee” solution which allows us to de-risk any one field and reduce capital intensity by providing us a highly mobile offshore operation. The mobile facilities are illustrated below.
Exploring the North-West Shelf of Western Australia
Our Fields
WA-41-R
Corowa
The Corowa Oil Field is located offshore in Commonwealth waters, approximately 60 km west of Onslow in the north-west of Australia, within the permit area WA-41-R. Corowa has had 3 appraisal wells drilled with a DST at Corowa-1, logs for all wells, RFT, and core. Corowa-1 intersected a highly permeable reservoir located in the Birdrong sands within the Barrow Sub-Basin, at a depth of approximately 1500m. The oil discovered has properties of light crude oil, with an API of 50 degrees. The field was previously appraised to have a proven contingent resource of 7MMstb.
KATO plans to develop the Corowa field using a re-locatable system known as the ‘honeybee production system.’ Based on statistical modelling of the production profile, the best estimate of field life at Corowa is 2 years (also known as P50), and the high estimate is 4.5 years (also known as P10; RPS 2014); i.e. the duration of the Operations phase is 2 – 4.5 years.
KATO has put together a Corowa Development Offshore Project Proposal (OPP) which contains an overview of the Corowa field development with a focus on the environmental and social impacts of the project. KATO has submitted the Corowa OPP to the National Offshore Petroleum Safety and Environment Management Authority (NOPSEMA), in accordance with the regulations administered by NOPSEMA under the Offshore Petroleum and Greenhouse Gas Storage Act 2006.
The full OPP is available on NOPSEMA’s website: https://www.nopsema.gov.au/environmental-management/assessment-process/offshore-project-proposals/public-comment/corowa-development-project/
WA-8-L
Amulet
The Amulet oil field is located offshore in Commonwealth waters, approximately 132 km north of Dampier in the north-west of Western Australia. The nearby Talisman field may also be developed concurrently (3.5 km from Amulet).The proposed Amulet Development will involve the mobilisation of equipment into the region to conduct a site survey, drill production wells, install production facilities, install subsea infrastructure and support the project during operations.
The initial drilling and installation phase will take approximately 10 months, followed by between 1.5-4.5 years of production and 3 months of decommissioning (total project life of approximately 5 years). The production facilities are designed to be relocatable, and will be removed and relocated to another field at completion of the project.
KATO, as the proponent of a new offshore petroleum project in Commonwealth waters, has submitted the Amulet Development Offshore Project Proposal (OPP) to the National Offshore Petroleum Safety and Environment Management Authority (NOPSEMA), in accordance with the regulations administered by NOPSEMA under the Offshore Petroleum and Greenhouse Gas Storage Act 2006.
The full OPP is available on NOPSEMA’s website: https://www.nopsema.gov.au/environmental-management/assessment-process/offshore-project-proposals/public-comment/amulet-development-offshore-project-proposal/
The Honeybee Production System
The successful development of the target fields requires mobile facilities that can be relocated from one field to the next. The Honeybee Production System (Left) is proposed and is comprised of the following key elements:
Jack-up mobile offshore production unit (MOPU).
Production unit on the MOPU, which will separate and process oil, gas and water.
Wells workover module on the MOPU, which will have the capability to plug and abandon wells, and potentially to drill; however, a separate mobile offshore drilling unit (MODU) may be used.
Short flowline and riser from the MOPU to a catenary anchor leg mooring (CALM) buoy.
Floating marine hose to transport oil.
Moored floating storage and offloading (FSO) facility, where oil is stored, or direct to shuttle tankers (depending on export option selected).
Floating export hose to offload oil from the FSO to export tankers.
This setup is reusable and will allow KATO to move between a sequence of fields. Other than the maneuverability and flexibility of the system, the advantages of the Honeybee include:
It uses a self-installing jack-up platform, with no requirement for mobilisation of a crane barge from overseas (which introduces additional risk and cost)
All infrastructure will be removed prior to demobilisation from the field, and most elements re-used on the next project; allowing for ease of decommissioning and minimising number of mobilisations required
Environmental impact is minimised by having no fixed platform
No offshore piling or trenching is required, further minimising environmental impact.
Our Office
102 Forrest St, Cottesloe
Perth, WA, 6011
Contact Us:
T: +61 8 9320 4700
E: info@katoenergy.com.au