Woodside Petroleum has awarded a contract to US engineering company Bechtel to carry out front-end engineering design work for the expansion of the Pluto LNG export plant in Western Australia.
Bechtel is best known in Australia for leading the engineering and construction of three coal-seam-gas-to LNG plants on Curtis Island in Queensland.
Woodside said the FEED work for the Pluto facility on the Burrup Peninsula includes final costings and technical definition for the proposed second LNG Train at the plant.
The Pluto plant was started up in 2012 and currently has one Train operating with nameplate capacity of 4.8 million tonnes per annum of capacity and 240,000 cubic metres of storage.
The Australian company said the award also included an option for Woodside to progress to a lump-sum engineering, procurement and construction contract.
“This option is subject to, among other conditions, a positive final investment decision being taken on the project,” the Woodside.
Woodside Chief Executive Peter Coleman said the decision to enter the FEED phase for the Pluto Train 2 project was a significant step towards progressing with the Burrup Hub, a regional LNG production centre in the northern part of Western Australia.
“Our Burrup Hub vision is taking shape as we work with Bechtel to progress the Pluto Train 2 Project, which will create a pathway for the globally cost-competitive development of Western Australian gas resources,” said Coleman.
The Pluto Train 2 Project will underpin Woodside’s preferred concept for the development of the offshore Scarborough gas field with 7.3 trillion cubic feet of gas in place.
Woodside is operator of the Scarborough field with a 75 percent stake after acquiring a 50 percent shareholding in 2018 from ExxonMobil. The minority shareholder in the field licence is Australian commodities company BHP Billiton.
Woodside added that the second LNG Train at the Pluto site would have a targeted capacity of 5 MTPA and the project would also involve installation of domestic gas infrastructure.
Woodside is targeting its investment decision for 2020 and is scheduling the start-up for 2024.
