Woodside cleared for plug and abandonment off Australia’s northwest coast

December 25, 2025, by Nadja Skopljak

Australian National Offshore Petroleum Safety and Environmental Management Authority (NOPSEMA) has given its green light to Woodside Energy for permanent plug and abandonment (P&A) and well intervention activities for subsea wells associated with a gas project situated on the country’s northwest coast.

For the North West Shelf (NWS) development, Woodside will perform P&A of three Angel field wells (AP2, AP3, and AP4) in production licence WA-3-L, P&A of two Perseus over Goodwyn (PoG) wells (PER-02, PER-04) in production licence WA-1-L, well intervention activity on the TPA-03 well located in WA-5-L, as well as inspection, maintenance, and repair (IMR) activities in preparation for plugging and abandonment of the mentioned wells.

The wells are located in Commonwealth waters in the Northern Carnarvon Basin around Woodside’s existing production facilities, in water depths ranging from approximately 77 to 128 meters. The closest well to shore is approximately 125 kilometers north of Dampier.

The P&A and well intervention will be performed using a moored or hybrid semi-submersible mobile offshore drilling unit (MODU), supported by vessels.

Woodside plans to carry out the activities between the first and fourth quarters of 2026, with the work expected to require between 14 and 57 days.

In the same MODU campaign, Woodside proposes to conduct well intervention activities at the TPA03 well to remediate a downhole valve and continue production from the lower reservoir. Once the well intervention has been completed, the well will be shut-in until production is required.

Of note, in September, the Australian Government approved the continuation of the operation of NWS. The final decision for the project extension – relating to the approval for the Karratha Gas Plant to continue operating beyond 2030 – was communicated in a statement by Murray Watt, Australia’s Minister for the Environment and Water. The approval is effective until December 31, 2070.

NWS, described by Woodside as a nationally significant asset, started exporting liquefied natural gas (LNG) to international customers in 1989. Since then, more than 6,000 LNG cargoes have been delivered overseas.