LNG

JERA Co. Inc, Japan’s biggest liquefied natural gas importer and utility company, has agreed to acquire a large stake in the Scarborough gas field development offshore Western Australia from Woodside Energy for US$1.5 billion, giving a financial boost to the Pluto LNG expansion.

Feb 21 (LNGJ) - Woodside Energy said the first three Pluto Train II modules for the Scarborough expansion project have arrived at Karratha in Western Australia. The modules were fabricated at an Indonesian yard by US energy engineers Bechtel and weigh a combined total of more than 4,000 metric tonnes. “The safe and timely arrival of the module is testament to the hard work and dedication of the Woodside team and our lead contractor Bechtel,” said Woodside Chief Executive Meg O’Neill said.

   Woodside said that the modules were three of a total of 51 that would be shipped to the site from the module yard to form Pluto LNG Train II. The second Pluto Train will have nameplate capacity of 5 million tonnes per annum and up to 3 MTPA of LNG will be processed at the existing Pluto Train 1 following modifications to accommodate the Scarborough field’s lean gas. The Pluto expansion is scheduled to ship its first cargo in 2026.

Woodside Energy, the Western Australian LNG plant operator with global oil and gas interests, expects to recognise non-cash, post-tax asset impairments amounting to around US$1.50 billion with US$1.20Bln related to the Shenzi asset, the deepwater oil and gas fields in the Gulf of Mexico, and the remainder for Wheatstone LNG.

Woodside Energy, the Australian operator of the North West Shelf and Pluto LNG plants in Western Australia, reported an increase in quarterly revenues due to higher realised prices and supported by record full-year production.

Woodside Energy, the operator of two liquefied natural gas export plants in Western Australia and other oil and gas assets from the US to Africa, said it had three main strategic goals in the years ahead to supply energy as current production is not enough and large new investments are needed to bring additional fields on stream.

Santos has become the latest Australian energy company along with Woodside Energy to have multi-billion dollar offshore natural gas pipeline projects blocked by the Federal Court of Australia for reasons of “underwater cultural heritage” even as in the case of Santos an independent expert anthropologist concluded that no such underwater cultural heritage places existed in the whole area.

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.

The leading Western Australia liquefied natural gas plant operator Woodside Energy reported a 13 percent drop in second-quarter revenues from a year ago as realised LNG prices dropped along with oil and natural gas production volumes.

April 21 (LNGJ) - Woodside Energy, the operator of the Northwest Shelf and Pluto LNG export plants in Western Australia, reported an 81 percent surge in first-quarter revenues to US$4.33 billion versus US$3.39Bln in the same three months of 2022. However, the income fell 16 percent from US$5.16Bln in the fourth quarter of 2022, according to the Perth-based company’s quarterly activities report.

   Woodside reported that the Scarborough gas field and the Pluto LNG Train II projects were now 30 percent complete with the export trunkline 86 percent finished and first concrete poured for the second Pluto Train. The drilling programme for the Sangomar oil project offshore Senegal progressed with 10 of 23 wells complete. “The Sangomar floating production storage and offloading (FPSO) topsides and pre-commissioning works continued in Singapore,” it added.

Woodside Energy Chief Executive Meg O’Neill said liquefied natural gas and oil and gas production were the keys to Australia's future and outlined a three-point plan for the nation  to progress while taking care not to be undermined by climate extremists.