Shell gets Australia’s blessing for work on giant offshore gas project

Shell Australia, a subsidiary of the UK-headquartered energy giant Shell, has received a stamp of approval for its environmental plan (EP) from the country’s offshore regulator for the installation and cold commissioning activities at its natural gas field off the coast of Western Australia.

The Shell-operated Crux development, sanctioned in May 2022, is located in Commonwealth waters in the northern Browse Basin, 190 kilometers offshore northwest Australia and 620 km northeast of Broome, in approximately 165 meters of water depth. The project is being progressed by the Crux joint venture, which comprises Shell Australia as the operator and SGH Energy as its joint venture partner. The first environmental approval for Crux was the Crux Offshore Project Proposal (OPP), which was accepted in August 2020.

The National Offshore Petroleum Safety and Environmental Management Authority (NOPSEMA) gave Shell the green light on March 5, 2025, to move forward with activities proposed in its submitted environment plan, entailing the installation of the Crux pipeline, substructure, and topside, including all tie-ins, cold commissioning, contingent and supporting activities within production license AC/L10 and pipeline licenses WA-33-PL and AC/PL1.

With water depths within the area ranging from around 90–260 meters from the mean sea level, the nearest island is Browse Island, which is about 42 km south-south-east of the activity area. The nearest shoals or banks are approximately 8 km away, including Goeree Shoal north-north-west and Eugene McDermott Shoal east-southeast.

The activities’ timeline indicates these works are expected from approximately late 2024 to the second half of 2027, pending regulatory approvals and project schedule interfaces. The work is estimated to be completed in approximately three years, with activities occurring in multiple work packages. The major work packages and their estimated durations are subject to vessel availability, operational efficiencies, and weather conditions.

The list of work to be undertaken encompasses the installation and cold commissioning of the export pipeline over five months; installation and cold commissioning of the Prelude–end flexible riser and umbilical during approximately six weeks; the installation of the Crux substructure over three months; installation of topsides during approximately six months; Crux topsides tie-ins and cold commissioning activities taking about two years; Prelude modifications for Crux tie-in lasting around two years; and staged preservation period once the infrastructure is installed and left in a preserved state during the life of this EP, which is around two years.

Based on the EP, each work package will be executed 24 hours a day, seven days a week—subject to operational and safety considerations. This EP was developed based on activities occurring at any time during the year to ensure all project planning scenarios were assessed. Cold commissioning and preserving the Crux project infrastructure is believed to be critical to maintaining the integrity of the infrastructure before operations with produced hydrocarbons begin.

Shell claims that the infrastructure is designed to minimize the need for inspection or intervention, but notes that certain events, such as third-party interaction or a severe cyclone, may require these activities to occur. This EP provides for inspection, maintenance, and repair (IMR) activities that may happen during the preservation period.

The operator has pinpointed the Crux gas field as a source of backfill gas for the existing Prelude floating liquefied natural gas (FLNG) facility. As a result, Crux will have the capacity to supply the Prelude FLNG facility with up to 550 million standard cubic feet of gas per day (mmscfd).

The company outlines that the development of the project will consist of a platform operated remotely from Prelude with five wells to be drilled initially. An export pipeline will connect the platform to Prelude, which is around 160 kilometers southwest of Crux. The first gas is anticipated in 2027.

The energy giant picked a cloud-based master data build and optimization software from ABL in February 2024 to be deployed across various new projects, including Crux, to achieve asset management efficiencies.