LNG

The Australian energy industry has been unsettled by environmental activists using an Aboriginal woman and additionally citing concern for whales and managing to persuade a Federal Court to delay Woodside Energy’s US$12 billion Scarborough gas project for LNG expansion, citing seismic testing approval deficiencies.

The Scarborough gas project is one of the few moving forward in Australia and has been specially targeted by environmental activists who have now succeeded in delaying Woodside’s plans as the previously approved seismic testing programme has now been called into question.

The Australian Federal Court by a decision handed down on September 28 has invalidated approvals given to Woodside by the National Offshore Petroleum Safety and Environmental Management Authority (NOPSEMA).

Perth-based Woodside has yet to issue a formal response to the court decision.

Previous ruling

The Supreme Court of Western Australia had previously, in March 2022, dismissed two proceedings brought against the Pluto LNG and Karratha Gas Plant environmental approvals given in 2019.

In the latest hearing, Justice Craig Coleman found that NOPSEMA, did not have the statutory power to accept Woodside’s environment plan because he wasn’t reasonably satisfied that all relevant stakeholders had been consulted, including some local Aboriginals.

The Pluto LNG onshore processing facility is located on the Burrup Peninsula near Karratha in the northwest of Western Australia and the first cargo from the current single-Train facility was delivered in 2012.

The second Train planned using Scarborough field gas will have 5 million tonnes per annum of output and take total nameplate capacity to around 9.2 MTPA.

The Scarborough field is located about 375 kilometres (233 miles) off the coast of Western Australia and is estimated to contain over 11 trillion cubic feet of dry gas.

Aboriginal voice

In the Court decision to delay, the environmentalists had called on an Aboriginal woman named as Raelene Cooper to seek a court injunction to reverse the seismic testing approval, citing opposition from the “traditional custodians” of the Burrup Peninsula who seemingly had never been properly consulted.

After the ruling a statement was released on behalf of Mrs Cooper in which she said she was “elated” by the decision and described the legal win as more than a personal victory.

“I want my mob back home to be empowered by this day today. This is bigger than me,” she said. “It's about my people and our history. We've been forgotten and treated so badly,” the woman added.

“Woodside just came and told us what was happening,” she said. “They never bothered to sit down and listen to Murujuga traditional custodians about the full impacts of their Burrup hub operations on our culture and our sacred song lines,” she stated.

Australian LNG operator Woodside has awarded a European-US grouping comprising units of Europe’s Subsea 7 and Houston-based Schlumberger, a significant contract for the subsea development of the Scarborough gas field to provide feed gas for the Pluto LNG plant expansion.

The Scarborough field is located about 380-kilometres offshore northwest Australia and is one of just two such feed-gas projects under way in Australia, with the other being the Barossa field to extend the lifespan of Darwin LNG.

Subsea 7 said the project work scope covered the engineering, procurement, construction, and installation (EPCI) of subsea pipelines and production systems.

The development will include 45 kilometres of rigid flowlines, six flexible flowline risers, 42 kilometres of umbilicals and eight trees, as well as associated subsea equipment, in water depths of about 950 metres.

The Subsea Integration Alliance team established during the initial front-end engineering and design phase, awarded in January 2019, will now transition into the full EPCI phase.

Project management and engineering will take place in Perth, Australia, with support from Subsea 7’s Global Project Centre’s offices in Malaysia, UK and France and various OneSubsea offices.

Offshore activities are targeted to take place from 2023 to 2025 using Subsea 7's reel-lay and flex-lay vessels.

Joint effort

“This award is the result of a strong and collaborative early engagement process with Woodside, working with a high level of transparency and cooperation during the pre-tender and FEED phases,” said Olivier Blaringhem, Chief Executive of the Subsea Integration Alliance.

“It demonstrates the potential value of Subsea Integration Alliance and its optimised and integrated offering capacity. We look forward to working with Woodside to deliver the project successfully and safely while maximising the client’s production objectives,” stated Blaringhem.

David Bertin, Vice President for Subsea 7 Global Projects Centre and Asia Pacific, said the group was proud to be awarded this contract by Woodside.

“This builds on our long-standing relationship with the client and our successful track record of projects executed offshore Australia,” explained Bertin.

“Our local office in Perth will be supported by Subsea 7’s Global Projects Centre, underlining the strength and breadth of our project management capabilities and the capacity to deliver complex projects,” added Bertin.

Subsea noted that it defined a large contract as being between US$300 million and US$500M and the value range refers to Subsea 7’s share of the contract.

The Subsea Integration Alliance is a non-incorporated strategic global alliance between Subsea 7 and OneSubsea, the subsea technologies, production and processing systems division of oil and gas services company Schlumberger.

The alliance brings together field development planning, project delivery and total lifecycle solutions under an extensive technology and services portfolio.

Woodside Petroleum, the operator of two liquefied natural gas export plants, said it had agreed a project to install more than 210,000 solar panels on the Burrup Peninsula of Western Australia for environmental reasons and to help supply 50 megawatts of electricity for the Pluto LNG facility.