In line with its commitments to support Australia’s energy transition, Woodside Energy Group Ltd. has awarded all major contracts for the decommissioning of its subsea infrastructure at the Enfield, Griffin, Stybarrow and Echo Yodel oil and gas fields off the coast of Western Australia, the company said in a news release.
The campaign will include the Nganhurra Riser Turret Mooring at the Enfield field, the Griffin RTM and the Stybarrow Disconnectable Turret Mooring, Woodside said. The campaign will begin in the fourth quarter of 2023, subject to regulatory approvals. The project will follow decommissioning activities that have taken place at the Enfield and Balnaves fields since the first quarter of 2022, the company said.
According to Woodside Energy’s vice president of Australian Projects, Michal Abdullah, the company is “partnering with a range of suppliers with specialist capabilities and experience to ensure the safe and successful execution of one of the largest decommissioning campaigns made in Western Australia”.
Specialist contractors engaged to carry out activities during the subsea decommissioning campaign include TechnipFMC, Heerema, McDermott, Fugro, DOF and McMahon, according to the statement. The contracts cover the removal and disposal of vertical and disconnectable turret moorings, umbilicals, flowlines and other subsea infrastructure.
“Woodside continues to undertake extensive stakeholder consultation to inform the development of the campaign’s environmental plans. These plans are either being updated to reflect stakeholder feedback or have been submitted to the regulator, NOPSEMA, for approval assessment,” Abdullah said.
The company also awarded a contract for the permanent plugging and abandonment of wells in the Stybarrow field to Transocean, according to the statement.
Local gas supply agreement
Earlier, in a separate new release, Woodside confirmed that it is terminating its long-term gas purchase and sale agreement with Australian urea producer Perdaman Chemicals and Fertilizers Pty Ltd., with the agreement becoming unconditional.
This follows a positive final investment decision by Perdaman at its 2.3 million metric tonnes per annum (mtpa) urea plant near Karratha in the Pilbara region of Western Australia.
Pipeline gas sold under the deal will be used at the Perdaman plant in the Pilbara, which will produce an important fertilizer feedstock to support both domestic and international agricultural users. The agreement provides for the supply of about 130 terajoules of gas per day for 20 years, and the plant is expected to be operational in 2026 or 2027, according to the press release.
The gas will be supplied from the Woodside portfolio and will be sourced primarily from the Scarborough project, which is currently under development. Scarborough will add up to 225 TJ/day of new domestic gas supply to Western Australia from 2026, the company said.
Perdaman chairman Vikas Rambal said in the statement that the project is “Australia’s largest downstream manufacturing project to date”.
The deal becomes unconditional following a memorandum of understanding signed between Woodside and Perdaman in April 2018, according to the statement.
At Woodside’s latest annual general meeting, CEO and managing director Meg O’Neill said the deal was “a significant milestone” as gas for Perdaman’s proposed urea plant ‘would chiefly obtain from Scarborough. “This agreement demonstrates the benefits Scarborough and Pluto Train 2 can bring to Western Australia, in this case supporting new industries and jobs in the Pilbara region,” Mr O’Neill said.
Western Australia-based Perdaman, which is part of the multinational Perdaman Group, specializes in the production of urea, a fertilizer that is widely traded around the world.
Gas for Net Zero
At the annual general meeting, O’Neill said Woodside is on track to meet its 2025 and 2030 emissions reduction targets of 15% and 30% respectively, aiming to net zero emissions by 2050 or earlier. Methane emissions were about 0.1 percent of the company’s production by volume, and during 2022 Woodside became a signatory to the Aim for Zero Methane Emissions initiative, O’Neill said.
In a speech to the National Press Club of Australia, O’Neill said decarbonisation would require a rapid expansion of renewable energy and investment in ongoing gas supplies. As the Australian government scraps coal projects and targets to increase the share of renewable energy to 82 percent by 2030, O’Neill said natural gas could fill the 18 percent energy gap, which which would represent a “big increase” compared to the current seven percent of gas energy in the country’s energy mix.
To contact the author, send an email to rteodoro.editor@outlook.com
