Woodside Yet to Finalise Browse Emission Plan
The Browse joint venture, which is undertaking the Browse to North West Shelf project, will outline its position on offsets and emissions reductions related to the project as the process of approval progresses, a Woodside spokesperson told NGW via e-mail November 26.
The spokesperson was responding to a query raised by NGW regarding a report published by UK newspaper The Guardian November 22 which said that Woodside has applied for environmental approval to develop the Browse to North West Shelf (Browse-to-NWS) project, but not included any plan to reduce or offset the project's greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.
"The Browse joint venture is evaluating a range of options to manage GHG and CO2 emissions as part of our environmental approvals process. Our environmental objective for the management of carbon emissions on the Browse to North West Shelf (NWS) project is to reduce emissions to as low as reasonably practicable," the spokesperson said, adding that the project is currently in concept definition and the Browse joint venture referred the project to the Western Australian Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) and the Australian Department of the Environment and Energy last month.
"We anticipate the approvals process will take approximately 18 months. This government-led process is transparent and inclusive and provides multiple opportunities for public consultation and comment. Our position on offsets and emissions reductions will be outlined as the approvals process progresses, as required by the regulators," the spokesperson said, adding: "Woodside will comply with Australia's greenhouse gas policy and requirements."
Earlier this year Woodside said it envisages the start of Browse's actual front end engineering and design (Feed) in 4Q 2019. The plan is to produce gas from the offshore Browse area through the gas production vessels (FPSOs) and then pipe it for processing to the existing onshore NWS liquefaction complex, also Woodside-operated.
Environmental regulation in Australia can be quite stringent. The federal and Western Australia governments obliged the Chevron-led 15.6mn mt/yr Gorgon LNG project to include carbon capture and storage (CCS) as a condition of giving its development approval 11 years ago; the CCS cost $2bn increasing Gorgon's total capital cost to US$54bn. The Nov.22 Guardian report quoted a representative of Conservation Council of Western Australia, an environmental charity, saying that the Browse-to-NWS scheme should be required to offset all its emissions both those in Australia and overseas, if allowed to go ahead.
Browse joint venture partners are Woodside (operator) with 30.6%; Shell, 27%; BP, 17.33%; a Mitsui-Mitsubishi joint venture with 14.4%, and PetroChina, 10.67%. The field is in water depth of 350 to 700m, some 425km north of Broome, Western Australia.