Australia’s Woodside awards Scarborough contracts

Australian LNG operator Woodside has awarded four contracts for front-end engineering design activities for its proposed Scarborough gas project offshore Western Australia.

The contracts are for engineering activities related to the upstream development’s floating production unit, the export trunkline and the subsea umbilical risers and flowlines.

Each contract includes an option to progress to execute phase activities, which is subject to, among other conditions, a positive final investment decision (FID) being taken on the project by the Scarborough Joint Venture, Woodside said in a statement on Wednesday.

McDermott Australia has been awarded a contract to undertake engineering studies for the floating production unit, which includes the option to progress to an engineering, procurement and construction contract for execute phase activities.

Subsea Integration Alliance, a consortium between OneSubsea Australia and Subsea 7 Australia Contracting, secured a contract to undertake engineering studies for the subsea umbilical risers and flowlines, with the option to progress to an engineering, procurement, construction and installation contract for execute phase activities.

Saipem Australia won a contract to provide export trunkline engineering support services with an option to execute line pipe coating and installation activities while Intecsea has secured a contract for export trunkline engineering.

Each contract was awarded by Woodside in its corporate capacity as a Scarborough titleholder and will be funded initially by Woodside on a 100% basis, the company said in the statement.

Woodside CEO Peter Coleman said in the statement the award of these contracts would support the project schedule and Woodside’s targeted FID for the Scarborough project next year.

“We have made good progress since announcing last year that we had increased our stake in Scarborough. The award of these contracts brings us closer to unlocking the Scarborough resource,” he said.

“We want to continue to maintain the momentum that has been generated during 2018 towards a targeted final investment decision in 2020,” Coleman added.

Woodside’s preferred concept for development of the 7.3 Tcf (2C 100%) Scarborough gas resource, in which the company has 75 percent, is through new offshore facilities connected by an approximately 430 km export pipeline to the Burrup Peninsula with onshore processing at the expanded Pluto LNG facility.