The Greater Western Flank Phase 2 development, located off the north-west coast of Western Australia, is the fourth major gas development for the North West Shelf project in the past seven years.

Woodside Energy will operate the development on behalf of a joint venture of BHP Billiton Petroleum, BP Developments Australia, Chevron Australia, Japan Australia LNG (MIMI), and Shell Australia. The six partners in the development own an equal stake of approximately 16.67% in the project.

The proposed development indicates the next stage in the gas supply to the North West Shelf project’s existing Goodwyn A platform and is expected to produce 1.6 trillion cubic feet (tcf) of raw gas and 43m barrels of condensate.

Approval for the project was obtained in December 2015 with a total project investment of approximately $2bn. Production from the development is scheduled to begin in the second half of 2019.

Production from the development is scheduled to begin in the second half of 2019

Greater Western Flank Phase 2 development details

A total of six hydrocarbon fields will be developed as part of the project, which lie close to the Goodwyn A platform. The six fields include Keast, Dockrell, Sculptor, Rankin, Lady Nora and Pemberton, which are located in production licences WA-5-L, WA-6-L, WA-24-L and WA-51-R respectively in Commonwealth waters, approximately 175km north-west of Dampier.

The broader Greater Western Flank (GWF) area consists of 16 fields located offshore to the south-west of the Goodwyn A platform.

The field development will include subsea infrastructure and a 35km-long, 16in-diameter pipeline that will connect to the existing Goodwyn A platform.

The project development will comprise drilling of eight natural gas production wells within the six gas fields. Five wells to be located in the Lady Nora, Pemberton, Sculptor and Rankin fields will start production first, followed by the remaining three in Lady Nora, Pemberton, Sculptor and Rankin fields that will begin production in the first half of 2020.

Natural gas produced from the fields will be supplied to the Karratha Gas Plant and converted into LNG to be shipped and sold to customers or to be used as domestic gas.

A moored mobile offshore drilling unit will be employed for drilling the proposed wells, whereas a primary installation vessel will be used for pipelay and subsea installation. The work will be supported by other vessels such as transport barges, tugs, heavy lift, special-purpose and subsea support vessels.

The development will be tied-in to the existing Greater Western Flank Phase 1 subsea isolation valve manifold.

Wood Group Kenny

Exploration / Drilling