Wood Group and Technip complete 11 years of Gorgon work

Wood Group and Technip have recently completed 11 years of engineering and project management services on the Chevron-operated Gorgon project off Western Australia.

To remind, Wood Group and Technip formed the Gorgon Upstream Joint Venture (GUJV) in 2005 to deliver front-end engineering and design (FEED) services and provide detailed engineering, procurement, and construction management (EPCM) services for Gorgon’s upstream facilities.

The upstream facilities encompass infrastructure to connect the deepwater Jansz-Io and Gorgon fields to the LNG plant located on Barrow Island, a Class A reserve. This included more than 800km of onshore and offshore steel pipe and one of the largest subsea installations in the world, with the subsea structures and pipes weighing around 230,000 tons.

Wood Group said on Tuesday that the GUJV has provided a Perth-based multidisciplinary team to cover a variety of engineering and support services required to engineer and execute a project of this scale. At its peak the joint venture supplied over 300 people, with a focus on local resources and delivery from Perth.

Bob Macdonald, CEO of Specialist Technical Solutions at Wood Group, said: “We are proud to have been part of one of the world’s largest natural gas projects from its early stages more than ten years ago.

“This was a challenging deepwater project and we delivered a fully integrated offering with Technip. The strategic partnership united our technical strengths to undertake engineering feats such as designing and installing one of the world’s largest subsea tiebacks.”

Arnaud Pieton, President of Technip in Asia Pacific, added: “We are delighted to have been involved with the Chevron-operated Gorgon project over the last 11 years. The integrated project management model was highly effective and worked exceptionally well due to our strong relationship and combined technical strengths with our joint venture partner Wood Group.”

The project itself is described by Chevron as ‘the largest single-resource development in Australia’s history’.

Chevron started producing liquefied natural gas (LNG) and condensate at the Gorgon project in early March 2016 and sent the first shipment soon after, on March 21, in the LNG tanker Asia Excellence.

The Gorgon project is operated by Chevron Australia and is a joint venture of Chevron (47.3 percent), ExxonMobil (25 percent), Shell (25 percent), Osaka Gas (1.25 percent), Tokyo Gas (1 percent) and Chubu Electric Power (0.417 percent).