Woodside takes over Scarborough from Exxon. FID in 2020

Australia’s Woodside has completed the $444 million acquisition of ExxonMobil’s interest in the Scarborough gas field off W. Australia.

The Australian company announced the agreement to acquire ExxonMobil’s share of the Scarborough gas field located in the Carnarvon Basin Australia in February 2018.

Apart from the $444 million paid for the Scarborough area blocks, Woodside will pay $300 million following a positive final investment decision to develop the Scarborough field.

The completion of the deal was subject to pre-emption rights and customary regulatory approvals.

Now that the transaction has been completed, Woodside holds a 75% interest in Scarborough and will become the Scarborough operator.

The leases acquired contain the Scarborough, Thebe and Jupiter gas fields, which are estimated to contain gross (100%) contingent resources (2C) of 9.2 Tcf of dry gas.

Woodside, with its partner BHP Billiton, is now working on the development concept prior to entering FEED. A final investment decision for the project is expected to be made in 2020.

Scarborough, discovered in 1979, is located off the coast of Western Australia approximately 220 kilometers northwest of Exmouth in 900 meters of water. It is one of the most remote of the Carnarvon Basin gas resources. Woodside first bought a stake there in 2016 from BHP Billiton.

Semi-sub to shore

Five years ago in 2013, Exxon and BHP Billiton, then the sole partners in the Scarborough area, had received the environmental approval for the Scarborough field development via what was to be the world’s largest FLNG facility. The FID had been slated for 2014-2015, but the collapse in oil prices then forced the partners to pull the breaks on the project.

The FLNG options are now off the table, as Woodside has said shifted focus towards its existing onshore infrastructure – Burrup Hub – for the development of the Scarborough area.

Woodside is proposing to develop the Scarborough resource with 12 subsea, high-rate gas wells tied back to a semi-submersible platform moored in 900 m of water.

The ~20,000 t topsides have processing facilities for gas dehydration and compression to transport the gas through a ~400 km pipeline to the Woodside-operated Pluto LNG facility. The cost for the development is estimated at $8.5 – $9.7 billion.

The first production from the development is expected in 2025, to meet what Woodside expects to be a global LNG supply gap.

Offshore Energy Today Staff