Amid labor controversy, a group led by Woodside Offshore Petroleum has let four major contracts totaling $228 million (Australian) for construction of the Goodwyn A production platform for the Northwest Shelf off Australia.
A Western Australian combine of Clough Engineering and Press Offshore Ltd. won a $79 million contract for Goodwyn's utilities and accommodation modules, Indonesia's PT McDermott a $73 million contract for the steel platform jacket, South Korea's Hyundai Heavy Industries a $66 million contract for four topside process modules, and South Australia's Eglo Engineering a $10 million contract for fabrication of platform insert piles.
The platform will be the centerpiece of a $1.6 billion development program in Goodwyn gas/condensate field, 22 miles southwest of North Rankin field off Western Australia (OGJ, Aug. 28, 1989, p. 15).
Goodwyn development, together with a third, $900 million natural gas liquefaction train on the Burrup Peninsula, represents the third phase of work in the mammoth $12 billion Northwest Shelf gas project.
A 30 in. pipeline will connect Goodwyn with North Rankin A platform. Goodwyn production is to begin in 1993.
Meantime, Woodside Petroleum Ltd. plans further drilling after reporting sizable test results in a confirmation to its Wanaea oil and gas discovery in the Northwest Shelf area.
LABOR CONTROVERSY
Unions and state officials in Western Australia earlier complained that if all the Goodwyn project's contracts went to foreign firms, it would mean loss of 1,300 jobs locally. Although two of the contracts went to Australian firms, that was only with the help of government subsidies and contractors' concessions.
Australian unions earlier threatened industrial chaos on the Northwest Shelf project if Woodside awarded all the major engineering contracts to foreign firms.
The controversy grew hotter when rumors surfaced that Hyundai's bid for the topside modules undercut the lowest Australian bid by $100 million, spurring allegations of trade dumping and subsidies by South Korea's government. There were no Australian bids for the 18,000 metric ton platform jacket.
Later talks among the Woodside group, unions, and state and federal government officials resulted in the federal government giving up $20-million in import duties to trim the domestic bids.
Peter Tapper, executive general manager of Woodside Offshore, said awards to Australian contractors were possible only as result of the reductions and offsets by Australian bidders and state and federal governments after bidding closed. Without the inducements, all work on Goodwyn A would have gone overseas, he said.
FOUNDATION FOR FUTURE WORK
At the same time, Tapper believes the outcome of negotiations laid a solid basis for the future of third phase construction in the Northwest Shelf project because the unions committed to "a far reaching, positive industrial relations agreement for the work."
Woodside and Australian unions earlier were at odds over the company's tough stand on industrial relations. Earlier, Woodside reportedly demanded-and union leaders rejected antistrike and productivity clauses before considering local bids. Federal government intervention in the dispute earlier this month led to the accord.
Tapper also predicted that the Australian content of work on the overall project will continue to exceed 70%, despite some foreign contracts. The module and pile fabrication work on Goodwyn represents about 6% of total outlays for third phase work.
The six equal partners in the Northwest Shelf LNG export project are Woodside Petroleum, BHP Petroleum Pty. Ltd., BP Developments Australia Ltd., Chevron Asiatic Oil Co., Japan Australia LNG (MIMI) Pty. Ltd., and Shell Development (Australia) Pty. Ltd. The same companies, excluding Japan Australia LNG-a joint venture of Mitsubishi Corp. and Mitsui & Co. Ltd.-hold varying interests in the domestic gas phase part of the Northwest Shelf project, which feeds gas into Western Australia.
WANAEA CONFIRMATION
Woodside 2 Wanaea flowed at a rate of 5,780 b/d of oil and 4.7 MMcfd of gas through a 25 mm choke on 4 hr test at 9,422-51 ft.
The confirmation is 3.5 km southwest of 1 Wanaea, which in August 1989 flowed 5,480 b/d of 48.8 gravity oil and 3.65 MMcfd from upper Jurassic Tithonian sandstone at 9,521-48 ft (see map, OGJ, Mar. 12, p. 21).
Despite the hefty flow rate, the gross oil column in the confirmation is only about 75 ft compared with about 335 ft in the discovery well, indicating a rapid thinning of the reservoir to the southwest.
Woodside plans a second Wanaea step-out to delineate the northeast portion of the field.
However, plans call for the Margie semisubmersible to first drill a well in nearby Angel gas/condensate field, discovered in 1972 and considered after Goodwyn the next major development for the Northwest Shelf gas project.
Woodside believes its 1989 Cossack oil discovery, just north of Wanaea, to be on a separate structure.
Interests in the field are held equally by the six participants in the Northwest Shelf LNG export project.
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