Safeway completes Australia’s ‘first’ offshore W2W project

Safeway, part of the Van Aalst Group of companies, has completed what it says is a first walk-to-work operation in Australian waters for client Woodside Energy.

Safeway said that the operation created hundreds of extra working hours for the Pluto Alpha offshore turnaround in the second quarter of 2019.

The PLA gas production platform is operated by Woodside Energy and is located 190 km north-west of Karratha, Western Australia, in 85 meters of water. Gas from the Pluto field is piped through a trunk line to an onshore facility.

For this project, Woodside Energy, MMA Offshore, and Safeway collaborated to install a 28-meter long walk-to-work Seagull-type on the 87,8 m long multi-purpose support vessel MMA Pinnacle.

According to Woodside, the next stage following to project is to take lessons learned and use them in future scopes where W2W can add value, starting with the turnaround at North Rankin Complex in September.

Also, Woodside has already started conversations for offshore turnarounds in 2020 and beyond.

Wijnand van Aalst, CEO at Safeway, said: “Safeway is already operating with various striking types of motion compensated offshore access systems in areas such as the North Sea, Baltic Sea, and offshore Nigeria.

“[…] we are grateful for this opportunity given by Woodside Energy and MMA Offshore to show the game-changing technologies of our Seagull-type W2W gangway in the Asia Pacific region as well.”

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