ESSO Australia will celebrate 40 years of oil and gas production from the Bass Strait and its contribution to Australia on 14 April.
Esso Australia says the first home was connected to the natural gas supply in Melbourne on 14 April 1969. The gas was piped from the Bass Strait to the company’s processing plant at Longford. Oil flows began later in 1969.
According to Esso Australia, almost four billion barrels of crude oil and seven trillion cubic feet of natural gas have been produced since the first well was drilled.
Esso Australia says the oil and gas production have played a significant role in the economic development of the nation. They have created around 50,000 permanent jobs and generated around $300b in Federal Government revenues in real terms.
According to Esso Australia, this represents 2.1% of government revenues collected in that period.
As for the future of the Bass Strait, Esso Australia’s multi-billion dollar Kipper and Turrum projects are set to begin in 2011. The Kipper Project, near Ninety Mile Beach on the Gippsland coast, holds about 620b cubic feet of natural gas and 30m barrels of condensate/LPG. The Turrum Project plans to develop another trillion cubic feet of gas and 110m barrels of oil and gas liquids.
Esso Australia claims that together, these two projects will have enough energy to power an entire city of a million people for at least 35 years.
There are also ongoing exploration, drilling and evaluation programs. Esso Australia hopes Bass Strait will be producing oil and gas for many more decades.