Transocean, TechnipFMC, Heerema, McDermott, Fugro, DOF, and McMahon get decom work at Woodside‘s oil & gas fields

Australia’s energy giant Woodside has handed out a batch of decommissioning deals to multiple players – Transocean, TechnipFMC, Heerema, McDermott, Fugro, DOF, and McMahon – for the removal and disposal of subsea infrastructure at several oil and gas fields offshore Western Australia.

Woodside Energy reported on Wednesday, 31 May 2023, that it had awarded “major” contracts for the removal and disposal of riser and disconnectable turret moorings, umbilicals, flowlines, and other subsea infrastructure at the Enfield, Griffin, Stybarrow, and Echo Yodel oil and gas fields located offshore Western Australia.

These contracts have been awarded to a range of contractors, including TechnipFMC, Heerema, McDermott, Fugro, DOF, and McMahon, which will undertake activities during the subsea decommissioning campaign. In addition, a contract for the permanent plug and abandonment of wells in the Stybarrow field in Commonwealth waters in the Northern Carnarvon Basin has been awarded to Transocean.

Michal Abdullah, Woodside Energy Vice President Projects Australia, commented: “We are partnering with a range of providers with specialist capabilities and experience to ensure safe and successful execution of one of the largest decommissioning campaigns undertaken offshore Western Australia. We are progressing well with our planning and remain on track to meet the regulatory requirements to complete the campaign.

“Woodside is continuing to undertake extensive stakeholder consultation to inform the development of environment plans for the campaign. These plans are either being updated to reflect stakeholder feedback or have been lodged with the regulator, NOPSEMA, for assessment.”

Furthermore, the Australian giant points out that the finalisation of these contracts supports the start of the decommissioning campaign – subject to regulatory approvals – in the fourth quarter of 2023. The upcoming work will follow decommissioning activities that have been underway at the Enfield and Balnaves fields since the first quarter of 2022.

The Enfield oil field lies in the Greater Enfield Area in the Commonwealth waters of the Exmouth sub-basin – part of the Carnarvon Basin – approximately 38 km north of the North West Cape while the Griffin field is located off the coast of Western Australia, 70 km northwest of Onslow and 68 km northeast of Exmouth.

Moreover, the Echo Yodel field lies in the Dampier sub-basin in Commonwealth waters and forms a part of the North West Shelf (NWS) project off Australia. Woodside also highlights that the campaign will include the decommissioning of the Nganhurra riser turret mooring (RTM) on the Enfield field, the Griffin RTM, and the Stybarrow disconnectable turret mooring.

While the Stybarrow field was still in production, it comprised the MODEC-operated FPSO Stybarrow Venture MV16 – capable of processing 100,000 barrels of liquids per day and a storage capacity in the order of 900,000 barrels – with production, gas injection and water injection wells at four drill centres routed to the disconnectable turret mooring (DTM) via flexible flowlines. During that time, oil products were stabilised and stored for offloading via tanker.

Aside from pursuing decommissioning activities, Woodside also plans to make final investment decisions (FIDs) and bring online multiple energy projects by year-end.

This encompasses oil and gas, low-carbon, and renewable projects.