Woodside hires Neptune for Browse seabed survey

Australia’s Woodside has hired Neptune Geomatics for survey work at the proposed Browse field development offshore Australia.

The Browse project aims to bring online the Brecknock, Calliance, and Torosa fields offshore W. Australia containing gross contingent resources (2C) of 15.4 trillion cubic feet of dry gas and 453 million barrels of condensate).

Neptune on Tuesday said the survey would see the acquisition of data along 900 kilometers of seabed.

“The survey is divided into 4 discrete work packages, delivered over two phases,” Neptune said.

The first phase is the acquisition of multibeam echo sounder reconnaissance data. The second phase will incorporate Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUV) data acquisition to collect high-resolution data along the survey route. The AUV survey will be followed by the acquisition of geotechnical (using Cone Penetration Testing) and environmental data.

The Browse development entails two FPSOs connected to the North Rankin Complex, from where the gas would be shipped via a 900 km pipeline to the Woodside-operated North West Shelf infrastructure.

Woodside expects to make the final investment decision for the $20B Browse development in 2021.

According to Woodside’s timeline, the Calliance and Brecknock fields are expected to be ready for start-up in 2026, with 2027 targeted for the Torosa field.

Offshore Energy Today Staff