Wood Group to oversee Timor Sea FPSO decommissioning

The new Australian Labor Government has awarded the Wood Group the role of ‘Owner’s Team’ with responsibility for overseeing the first decommissioning phase of the Northern Endeavour floating production storage and offtake (FPSO) vessel in the Timor Sea.

Wood will work with Australia’s Department of Industry, Science, Energy & Resources and other contractors to ensure a safe, efficient, and responsible initial phase of the decommissioning project, the company said.

Northern Endeavour is a 274 m-long vessel permanently moored between now depleted Laminaria and Corallina oil fields in the western Timor Sea about 550 km northwest of Darwin.

Wood’s involvement follows the previous Australian Government’s award of an $325 million (Aus.) contract in April to UK-based Petrofac Facilities Management for first stage clean-up at the abandoned oil fields.

The first stage involves disconnection of the Northern Endeavour from subsea equipment at the fields.

Peak production at the fields—originally discovered in 1994/95 and brought on stream by Woodside Petroleum in 1999—reached 170,000 boe/d. They were abandoned when the last owner, Northern Oil & Gas Australia, went into liquidation in 2019.

The previous Australian Government undertook to take charge of the clean-up but passed legislation in Federal Parliament late March to impose a temporary levy on the industry in Australia to recover the cost of removing facilities at the field and remediating the site.

Disconnection of Northern Endeavour is expected to take about 18 months.