Woodside Energy spent about $325 million on decommissioning activities offshore Australia during the first half of this year, the company said in its latest results update.
At the Enfield development offshore Western Australia, the final two of 18 christmas trees were removed, and wellhead severance work started.
Deconstruction of the Nganhurra riser turret mooring was completed at the Australian Marine Complex. At the Griffin field, all rigid piping was recovered and wellhead severance has finished.
Also offshore Western Australia, the Transocean Endurance semisub has begun a 10-well plug and abandonment (P&A) campaign at the Stybarrow field.
In the Bass Strait offshore southeast Australia, the Gippsland Basin joint venture continued to progress decommissioning activity including P&A of platform wells and two subsea wells. FEED work has progressed for the removal of platforms no longer in use.
Bass Strait includes the Kipper Unit joint venture. Here, the offshore modules for the Kipper Compression Project have been installed, with startup expected during the current quarter.
This should ensure continued supply of gas to the local domestic market.
The Woodside-operated North West Shelf (NWS) project offshore northwest Australia, now in operation for 40 years, is entering a period of production decline. As a result of this and current third-party requirements, the onshore Karratha gas plant has processing ullage.
To better manage operating costs and emissions, the NWS is preparing to take one LNG train offline between late 2024 and mid-2025.
Applications are out for review for the proposed NWS Project Extension, designed to support long-term operations and processing of future third-party gas resources at KGP.
One proposed scheme is the Browse development, comprising the Calliance, Brecknock and Torosa gas and condensate fields, which are 425 km north of Broome. Key work scopes supporting the Browse to NWS project development have included discussions with regulators on environmental and regulatory approvals.
A carbon capture and storage solution has been included in the planned offshore infrastructure, designed to sequester much of the Browse reservoir’s CO2. During June, the Commonwealth government issued a Declaration of an Identified Greenhouse Gas Storage Formation over the Calliance Storage Formation within the G-8-AP greenhouse gas assessment permit.
Woodside operates with a 30.6% participating interest.