Oz Scarborough JV to Accept Production Licences

Australian Woodside on November 9 said that the Scarborough joint venture plans to accept production licences for WA-1-R (Scarborough) and WA-62-R (North Scarborough) from the Commonwealth and Western Australian joint authority.

This follows an agreement reached between Woodside and BHP in February to align their participating interests at WA-1-R and WA-62-R, giving Woodside a 73.5% position and BHP a 26.5% stake in each.

Woodside CEO Peter Coleman said the Scarborough joint venture's accepting of the licences demonstrated the partnership's commitment to taking the project forward.

“The impacts of Covid-19 and the ensuing volatility in market and investment conditions have provided us with an opportunity to review options for the Scarborough development, allowing us to improve execution certainty and increase the value of this world-class resource,” he said. “With production licences and the offshore project proposal environmental approval in place, Woodside will have secured the key primary Commonwealth approvals required to support a final investment decision.”

After accepting the licences, the Scarborough joint venture's next move will be applying for a pipeline licence and submitting a field development plan to the joint authority. It is targeting a final investment decision in the second half of 2021, Woodside said.

In April the Scarborough Offshore Project Proposal – the primary Commonwealth environmental assessment document for the Scarborough project – was accepted by the National Offshore Petroleum Safety and Environmental Management Authority. Retention lease renewal applications regarding WA-61-R and WA-63-R for the Thebe and Jupiter fields, part of the Greater Scarborough gas resource, were submitted to the joint authority in May and are currently under assessment, the company added.

The Scarborough field contains an estimated contingent resource (2C) of 11.1 trillion ft³ of dry gas.