NW Shelf construction programs on track

Offshore staff

PERTH -- Fabrication of the topsides for the North Rankin B platform, destined for Australia’s North West Shelf, is under way at Hyundai Heavy Industries’ yard in Korea.

According to project operator Woodside, work on the platform’s substructure at the PT McDermott site in Indonesia remains on schedule, with the North Rankin A platform undergoing deck strengthening to accommodate an interconnecting bridge.

In the same region, refurbishment of the FSO Okha for the North West Shelf oil redevelopment project continues at the Keppel Tuas shipyard in Singapore, while fabrication of the FPSO topsides modules has started, again in Singapore. Engineering design and procurement activities for the FPSO are being managed in Europe.

All subsea hardware for the project has been manufactured, and negotiations for the subsea installation scope are nearing completion.

Construction of the Pluto LNG project, Woodside’s other current major development in the region, is 65% complete and on target to deliver first gas in June 2010.

Completion work on Pluto’s five offshore production wells started in late-May. Installation of the flowlines connecting the producer’s to the platform site has been completed. Now work is under way on laying the trunkline that will connect the platform to the onshore LNG plant.

The jacket is under construction in china and the topsides in Malaysia. Both should be delivered and installed later this year.

Elsewhere, Woodside says work is progressing on the floating and Darwin-based LNG concepts for the Sunrise project, with concept selection expected by year-end.

As for the Browse LNG project, the company says the Western Australia State Government’s Kimberley LNG Precinct is its preferred site for processing LNG from the Browse Basin gas fields. The focus for the remainder of this year, it adds, will be on “critical path activities” to facilitate a final investment decision in 2011.

07/24/2009