Sona to buy Stag oil field from Santos, Quadrant for $50 million

Sona Petroleum Bhd., Kuala Lumpur, has bought Stag oil field offshore Western Australia for $50 million. The field had been owned 33.33% by operator Quadrant Energy Pty. Ltd., Perth, and 66.66% by Santos Ltd., Adelaide (OGJ Online, June 23, 2015).

The field, which lies 60 km offshore Dampier, has been on stream since 1998, then operated by Apache Corp. It is considered a mature field.

Santos said the field was no longer material to its portfolio, while Quadrant is looking to move on into new growth opportunities.

Stag has a production capacity of 5,500 b/d via a fixed platform connected to the Dampier Spirit floating storage and offtake vessel.

Sona sees continuing value in the asset with potential for new development and exploration opportunities. It is the Malaysian company’s first move into Australia and the company says that in this single transaction it will be able to enter the production, development, and exploration phases of the upstream industry.

Sona plans to enhance the field’s production, including the drilling of new infill wells to accelerate oil recovery.

Remaining reserves are believed to be 13 million bbl of proved oil, 16.2 million bbl of 2P oil, and 24 million bbl of 3P oil reserves.

The surrounding WA-15-L production licence expired in 2018, but can be extended for another 21 years subject to regulatory approvals.