Esso Australia Pty Ltd and operator of the Gippsland Basin Joint Venture, announced that it had entered into a multi-year agreement with DOF Subsea to charter a Multi-Purpose Supply Vessel to support decommissioning activities in Bass Strait.
ExxonMobil Australia Chair, Dylan Pugh, said the process of safely decommissioning offshore facilities is very complex and requires many years of planning.
“As the operator of some of Australia’s most mature oil and gas fields, Esso Australia is committed to safely decommissioning our Bass Strait offshore facilities,” said Pugh.
“Over the last few years, we have completed around $600 million of early decommissioning works in Bass Strait, including successfully removing the Seahorse and Tarwhine facilities, completing plug and abandonment activities on our Blackback and Whiting wells, and significantly progressing well decommissioning activities on Kingfish B and Mackerel.
“As we continue to progress these important, early decommissioning works, we are also planning for the eventual decommissioning of our facilities that are to cease production in the near future.”
It is anticipated that the Multi-Purpose Supply Vessel will arrive in Bass Strait towards the middle of 2022, where it will support early decommissioning works on the Perch and Dolphin facilities, before moving onto other topside and subsea work scopes.
The vessel will be fitted with a remote operated vehicle, a heave compensated subsea crane, and a walk-to-work gangway system which will allow work crews to easily transfer from the vessel to the offshore facilities.
In addition to planning for the eventual decommissioning of some of its legacy Bass Strait facilities, Esso Australia continues to invest in delivering reliable and affordable Gippsland gas to Australian homes and businesses, supporting local jobs and the Australian economy.
“We continue to assess new projects in Bass Strait, with the aim of extending our production of Gippsland gas into the next decade,” said Pugh.
“Just last year we commissioned West Barracouta, one of the largest domestic gas projects this decade.”
“As West Barracouta showed, there is still potential left in Bass Strait and we are working hard to unlock its full value so we can continue to deliver the gas Australians need.”