The completed wells were part of the company’s West Barracouta development, located in the VIC/L1 block offshore Victoria.
ExxonMobil Australia Chairman Nathan Fay said the drilling program was still underway when the company began adjusting its work practices to deal with the virus pandemic.
“This presented significant challenges for the team, especially when you consider we needed to manage strict workforce and process restrictions on the Noble Tom Prosser drilling rig,” he said.
“Despite the increased challenges presented by the COVID-19 pandemic, the Australia Upstream Integrated Solutions Wells team were able to complete drilling these wells safely.”
Mr Fay said the company will now “adjust” work plans but will continue construction of associated gas production infrastructure linking West Barracouta to the Barracouta field.
“While we continue to work on the West Barracouta development, due to COVID-19 related challenges, we will pause the other drilling work that was planned for the remainder of this year and review timing for this program of works,” he said.
Exxon expects the West Barracouta construction to be completed in early 2021.
The company’s work load adjustments follow similar moves from other major oil and gas operators, including Woodside, Santos and Oil Search in downgrading expenditure and reducing operations to mitigate the spread of COVID-19.
For more information visit the ExxonMobil Australia website.
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