Woodside Energy (Woodside) has assumed operatorship of Gippsland basin assets, including the Gippsland Basin Joint Venture (GBJV) and Kipper Unit Joint Venture (KUJV), from Esso Australia Resources Pty Ltd. (Esso Australia Resources).

Gippsland basin gas production is 100% supplied to the domestic market and currently supplies about 40% of Australian east coast domestic gas demand.

The transition has been designed to ensure continuity of operations and safe and reliable production, Woodside said in a release July 1.

The company said it will apply its operating systems, governance, and technical capability "to support the next phase of the assets’ lifecycle, including ongoing production, disciplined investment, and planning for late-life asset management and decommissioning." The company also will continue to assess development opportunities aimed at leveraging existing infrastructure to develop up to 200 petajoules of additional gas for the east coast domestic market.

Gippsland basin is in southeastern Australia about 200 km east of Melbourne. The basin covers about 46,000 sq km, of which two‑thirds are offshore and one‑third are onshore Most of the reservoirs contain siliciclastics of the Late Cretaceous to Paleogene Latrobe Group. Remaining reserves are estimated at 400 MMbbl of liquids and 6 tcf of gas. Subsea pipelines bring hydrocarbons to onshore processing infrastructure near Longford.

Woodside and Esso Australia Resources each hold a 50% participating interest in the GBJV and 32.5% participating interest in the KUJV. The transition involves the transfer of operatorship (not asset ownership) from Esso Australia Resources to Woodside.