Woodside Burrup gas hub concept moves forward

Woodside Petroleum Ltd. is gradually moving forward with its Burrup gas hub concept in Western Australia.

The company revealed in its second quarter 2020 report that it has applied for production licenses to cover the Calliance and Torosa gas and condensate fields in Browse basin off the northwest coast of Western Australia.

The fields, originally discovered in the early 1970s, have been held under retention leases for more than 15 years.

At the same time, the company applied for a renewal of the retention lease over nearby Brecknock gas field.

Woodside said its responses to agency and public comments on the draft environmental impact statement for the Browse development project are now being finalized for submission to the state and federal authorities.

A final investment decision on the Browse is targeted for 2023. The development plan is to pipe gas south from the fields to the Woodside-operated LNG-domestic gas plants on the Burrup Peninsula near Karrartha as part of the proposed $40-billion (Aus.) Burrup gas hub.

Other components include construction of a second LNG train at the Pluto LNG plant, development of Scarborough gas fields, and a pipeline interconnector between the Pluto plant and the North West Shelf gas plant (OGJ Online, Nov. 11, 2019).

Woodside has already applied to convert the current retention licenses WA-1-R and WA-62-R over Scarborough field into production licenses. The company also said it has applied for retention lease renewals for WA-61-R (Jupiter field) and WA-63-R (Thebe field), both of which are earmarked for future development through the proposed Scarborough infrastructure.

A final investment decision for Scarborough development is now scheduled for second-half 2021.