Saipem reports pipelayer incident offshore Australia

Italian oilfield services provider Saipem has reported that an incident occurred on its pipelaying vessel during operations offshore Australia.

Saipem announced that early this morning, January 30, an incident occurred on the Castorone pipelay vessel off the waters of Australia during normal pipelaying operations.

The incident did not cause injuries to personnel and Castorone did not sustain any major damages, the company said. However, localized damage to the trunkline was sustained.

According to the initial assessment, a software anomaly could have caused the event and an investigation as well as plans for the trunkline remediation work are underway.

According to local media reports, the incident occurred at Woodside’s $18 billion Scarborough gas project. The Australian energy giant paused the installation of an offshore gas pipeline for the project after an incident ripped a gaping hole in the pipeline.

Australian online newspaper WAtoday writes that Castorone lost control of the pipeline it was installing, forcing an evacuation of workers and damaging the pipeline.

Saipem was awarded the Scarborough contract in January 2022

The National Offshore Petroleum Safety and Environmental Management Authority (NOPSEMA) accepted Woodside’s environment plan in December 2023 proposing to undertake seabed intervention and trunkline installation activities in Commonwealth waters for the Scarborough development.

Located approximately 375 kilometers off the coast of Western Australia, the Scarborough field’s development will include the installation of a floating production unit with eight wells drilled in the initial phase and thirteen wells drilled over the life of the field. The gas from the Scarborough field will be processed at the Pluto LNG facility, where Pluto Train 2 is being constructed.

The article was amended on January 31 at 13:15h to state additional information.