The Brisbane-based company yesterday said under the gas sales agreement, first gas deliveries were required by March 31.

“In a tight market for labour and materials, the project development has been well executed, with the total elapsed time from project development decision to first gas sales being approximately 13 months,” Arrow said.

Dewatering of the field began from a limited number of wells in the second half of 2006 and further wells continue to be brought onstream. To date, about 45 of the 85 wells drilled have been put on pump and have begun dewatering.

The remaining wells will be added over the next three months and commissioning of the gas compression and related facilities is now underway enabling first gas sales to be made, Arrow said.

Initial gas flow into the Braemar Power project export line was at a rate of about 4 terajoules per day and is stabilising at around 2.5TJpd.

Sales are expected to be sporadic over the next few weeks during the commissioning phase.

Arrow said after commissioning, gas deliveries as required under the gas sales agreement will “ramp up” from a low rate in April to the full requirement of 16TJpd by October 1.

The field is expected to be producing about 27TJpd by end-2007.

The Tipton West project is a joint venture between Arrow (60%) and Beach Petroleum (40%).

Combined upstream and downstream development costs for the 10PJ per annum project was about $71 million (for the original 75-well development). Arrow’s net capital contribution is about $7 million, following the previously announced upstream farm-in by Beach Petroleum and the downstream funding arrangement with Australian Pipeline Trust.

Comet Ridge owns a 1.5% royalty on the well head value of gas produced from the project until it has received a total $8 million.