Offshore staff

PERTH, Australia – Woodside Energy (WPL:AU/WOPEY:US) says construction of the Pluto LNG foundation project in northwest Australia is in its final stages.

Offshore, the Pluto A platform was declared ready for start-up in November, and the subsea well commissioning campaign was completed in December.

Onshore, the jetty, storage and loading facilities are operational. Testing and independent running of major process equipment are progressing prior to start-up of the LNG train. Offshore gas was introduced into the processing plant last weekend, enabling final preparations for LNG production to begin.

Woodside continues to explore for fresh reserves for the project. The Ragnar-1 well in the offshore WA-430-P permit has reached target depth, intersecting gas over a gross interval of 190 m (623 ft).

The company next plans to drill an oil appraisal well in the Greater Laverda area before returning to the Ragnar Hub to drill Vucko-1 in WA-433-P, with further exploration wells to follow later in WA-389-P and WA-269-P.

Discussions continue with other resource owners regarding development of more trains at Pluto.

Last year Woodside completed the draft upstream environmental impact statement for the Browse basin LNG project and submitted the field development plan.

The company’s share of Browse contingent resources has increased from 1,187.7 MMboe to 1,439.2 MMboe. This is due to enhanced reservoir analysis at the Torosa and Calliance fields, seismic coverage from the Maxima survey, and reprocessing of existing data.

An ocean-bottom cable-deployed 3D seismic survey was acquired over the Torosa field, with interpretation due to be completed in the latter part of 2012.

The Browse Joint Venture has written to the Commonwealth Minister for Resources and Energy and the WA Minister for Mines and Petroleum requesting amendments to the Browse basin retention leases. The request includes a suggested deferral of final investment decision readiness from mid-2012 to the first half of 2013.

Finally, Woodside says the bridges that will connect the North Rankin A and North Rankin B platforms for the North Rankin development project have been completed in Indonesia.

In South Korea, fabrication of the NRB 23,000-metric ton (25,353-ton) topsides was finished in readiness for sail-away to the North West Shelf in early 2012. Topsides installation should take place before mid-year.

2/23/2012