The dawning of Australia’s decommissioning sector
With a range of Australia’s offshore oil and gas infrastructure nearing the end of their operational lives, end-of-life management and decommissioning in the region brings challenges and opportunities.
Heralding the start of this decommissioning era is the ageing Northern Endeavour Floating Production, Storage and Offloading (FPSO) oil production vessel permanently moored in the Timor Sea, owned by the Australian Government.
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Client
Australian Government’s Department of Industry, Science and Resources (the Commonwealth)
Scope
Outsourced Operator for Phase 1 decommissioning and disconnection of the Northern Endeavour FPSO from subsea equipment
A complicated history
Moored between the Laminaria and Corallina oil fields, 550km Northwest of Darwin, the Northern Endeavour was originally installed in the mid-1990s and once processed 170,000 barrels of oil a day. In 2019 a regulatory inspection found it to be in degraded state and insisted it was shut down, citing an immediate threat to health and safety. With the private operator falling into liquidation, the Commonwealth took responsibility for the Northern Endeavour facility and engaged a partner through a global procurement exercise to deliver FPSO disconnection and decommissioning outcomes.
Integrating services to deliver safely and efficiently
Our Australian team, based in Perth, took operational control of the Northern Endeavour FPSO on behalf of the Commonwealth in October 2022. We are contracted to complete phase one of decommissioning and are responsible for the safety and day-to-day operation of the FPSO, as well as preparing it for disconnection from its subsea equipment and the temporary suspension of the wells. This includes flushing and cleaning the topsides and sub-sea pipelines and sea-fastening to prepare for tow.
This is a high-profile, landmark project for Australia’s offshore oil and gas sector, and we are leading the way by integrating our capabilities and experience to:
- Upskill the local workforce, generating jobs, local skills and nurturing the local supply chain.
- Integrating our in-house capabilities to manage the day-to-day operatorship and prepare for well and asset decommissioning phases.
- Drawing on our experience in mature and highly regulated regions, such as the United Kingdom Continental Shelf (UKCS) to ensure the safe and cost-efficient preparation of the FPSO for removal.
- In the context of the decommissioning safety case, maintaining close collaboration with the National Offshore Petroleum Safety and Environmental Management Authority (NOPSEMA) to secure regulatory consent for each step leading up to FPSO disconnection.
Key facts / project highlights
- First outsourced operator to hold an accepted decommissioning safety case
- Six-month successful transition of operatorship to Petrofac
- 274- metre-long FPSO facility
- Nine subsea oil wells to be suspended
- 400-metres deep wells
Global experience, local delivery
Exporting our decommissioning expertise from the mature and highly regulated UK Continental Shelf (UKCS) to the region has been pivotal in creating local jobs and opportunities for upskilling the Australian workforce and local supply chain in decommissioning.
Achieving major milestones in decommissioning safety
We received first and second decommissioning safety case acceptances from Australia’s regulator, NOPSEMA, two months ahead of schedule. Early and continuous engagement with NOPSEMA, sharing knowledge on our operating methods in other geographies, presenting safety case strategies to obtain an early buy-in and implementing feedback made this achievement possible.
The milestone safety case permits us to commence decommissioning and disconnection of the Northern Endeavour FPSO vessel which has maintained a non-production ‘lighthouse’ mode during preparations for decommissioning.
We continue to work closely with the Commonwealth and our supply chain to deliver on this landmark project.
“This contract builds on over 15 years of working in Australia and is proof of our growing and long-term ambitions in the country. “A critical element has been upskilling the local workforce to meet the challenges of billions of dollars of decommissioning work in Australia now and in the future.”
