LNG

Woodside Petroleum said it could be time to revive the cancelled Browse LNG export project to use the vast natural gas reserves in the fields offshore Western Australia at a time of future global shortages as Europe breaks with Russia as a supplier.

The Woodside comments were made by Chief Executive Meg O’Neill in front of shareholders at the Woodside Annual General Meeting held at the Perth Convention & Exhibition Centre.

“The likelihood that major energy customers will continue moving away from Russian energy sources also strengthens the case for other undeveloped gas fields, such as Browse, to be brought on-line,” O’Neill told the meeting.

The Browse LNG project was previously planned using 13.3 trillion cubic feet of gas from the Browse Basin offshore northwest Australia.

An onshore export plant with an initial 10 million tonnes per annum of output had almost reached the design stage when it was cancelled by the Government.

“We are in this position of financial strength at a time of significant volatility in global commodity markets including oil and gas, exacerbated by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine,” explained O’Neill.

“Against this backdrop of geo-political uncertainty, security of energy supply becomes ever more important. Reliable supply from Woodside’s established and emerging projects will be increasingly valuable to customers in our region,” she stated.

Pluto expansion

O’Neill also commented on current projects including the Pluto LNG expansion in Western Australia and the Sangomar oil project offshore Senegal in West Africa.

“Construction of the Pluto-KGP Interconnector pipeline between Pluto LNG and the Karratha Gas Plant was completed in late 2021, enabling processing of third-party gas to begin in March this year,” O’Neill told shareholders.

“The Interconnector links our two most significant producing assets, optimising production at both Pluto and KGP and providing us with optionality for the future,” she added.

“We also achieved ready for start-up for the first phase of Pyxis Hub, and for Julimar-Brunello Phase 2, which are important tie-backs for the Pluto and Wheatstone LNG projects respectively,” said the CEO.

O’Neill also noted that on the ground in Karratha, major civil works were well underway on the construction of an accommodation village for the Pluto Train 2 construction workforce.

“Manufacture of the Scarborough pipeline commenced in February and fabrication of the offshore floating production unit topsides is targeted to begin this quarter,” she said.

In West Africa, O’Neill declared that the Sangomar oil project in Senegal was on schedule.

“Construction of our Sangomar project offshore Senegal is progressing well, with the Phase 1 development close to 60 percent complete and on track for first oil in 2023,” she said.

“We have successfully drilled and completed the first four production wells and a second drill ship remains on schedule to commence drilling in mid-year,” added O’Neill.

She explained that conversion activities for the Floating Production Storage and Offloading (FPSO) unit were progressing and the subsea installation campaign was scheduled to start later in 2022.