The Baldfish operational area is located approximately 90 km from shore in Exploration Permit Area VIC/P790. Water depth within VIC/P70 ranges from 200 m to over 3 km, with the two drill locations, Hairtail-1 and Baldfish-1, at ~359m and ~665m respectively.
Block VIC/P70, in the deepwater Gippsland basin, was acquired by Esso Deepwater Gippsland Pty Ltd (“Esso Deepwater”), a wholly owned subsidiary of Exxon Mobil Corporation, in Q2, 2017. It is the first new exploration acreage acquired by ExxonMobil in Australia since 2010, and the first in the Gippsland Basin since 1996.
Vic/P70 incorporates the area previously the subject of blocks VIC/P45 and VIC/P59, previously explored by Apache Energy. Since acquiring the field, Esso Deepwater has accelerated exploration drilling plans in response to concerns about domestic gas shortages.
The scope of the EP encompasses all activities relating to the Baldfish exploration drilling activities within the operational area of the Baldfish wells as outlined in this EP, including the 500m radius exclusion zone around each well within Exploration Block VIC/P70, in Commonwealth waters.
This EP demonstrates that Esso Deepwater has a sound understanding of how its operations interact with the environment and demonstrates the implementation of controls to reduce environmental risks to as low as reasonably practicable (ALARP) and acceptable levels. It also sets appropriate environmental performance outcomes, standards, and measurement criteria for these controls.