Laminaria East

Location

The Laminaria and Corallina oil fields, including the Laminaria East area, are situated in the Timor Sea, approximately 550 kilometers northwest of Darwin, Australia. The fields fall within production licenses AC/L5 and WA-18-L.

Discovery and Exploration

• The Laminaria field was discovered in October 1994 by the Laminaria-1 exploration well.
• Corallina, located 10 kilometers northwest of the center of Laminaria, was discovered by the Corallina-1 exploration well in December 1995.
• The Laminaria East area is part of the broader Laminaria field and is included in the neighboring Laminaria East licence, WA18L Petroleum, held by BHP Petroleum.

Development and Production

• The initial development plan involved three subsea production wells on Laminaria and two production wells on Corallina. There is also a dedicated gas-injection well (East Corallina-1) for surplus gas re-injection.
• The fields have a total of eight wells developed on reserves of about 200 million barrels.
• Production from the Laminaria and Corallina fields began in late 1999.
• The wells are connected to the Northern Endeavour Floating Production, Storage, and Offloading (FPSO) vessel, which is capable of producing in excess of 50,000 barrels of oil per day (bpd). At peak production, the FPSO processed 170,000 bpd.

Production Facilities

• The production facilities include hydrocarbon separation, stabilization, and testing, designed to handle a maximum oil production rate of 27,000 cubic meters per day (170,000 bpd).
• The facilities also include produced water treatment, gas compression, gas lift, power generation, water cooling, and fiscal metering.
• A stabilization column was used to reduce LPG content and improve crude value.
• The subsea layout comprises two main drilling centers and a separate gas-disposal well. The Laminaria central four-slot manifold and the Corallina two-slot manifold are tied back to the FPSO via 10-inch production flowlines.

Ownership and Operation

• Initially, the ownership of the Laminaria site was distributed among Woodside (44.9%), Paladin (32.6%), and Shell (22.5%). After Woodside bought out Shell’s stake, Woodside held a controlling share of 55.9%.
• In April 2016, Northern Oil and Gas Australia (NOGA) acquired 100% of the licenses and the Northern Endeavour FPSO from Woodside. However, NOGA and its associates went into voluntary administration in September 2019 due to financial difficulties.

Decommissioning

• Production at the Laminaria and Corallina fields ceased in 2019 due to a regulatory inspection that found the Northern Endeavour FPSO to be in a degraded state, posing an immediate threat to health and safety.
• The Australian Government took responsibility for the Northern Endeavour facility and engaged Petrofac to deliver the decommissioning project.
• In March 2022, the government signed a A$325 million contract with Petrofac for phase one of the decommissioning project.
• Decommissioning activities started in August 2022, with Petrofac responsible for the disconnection of the FPSO from its subsea infrastructure and the temporary suspension of the wells. The FPSO has been in a non-production ‘lighthouse’ mode during preparations for decommissioning.

Regulatory and Financial Aspects

• The Australian Government introduced a temporary levy on offshore petroleum production, known as the Offshore Petroleum Laminaria and Corallina Decommissioning Cost Recovery Levy (OP Levy), to recover the costs associated with decommissioning the fields and their infrastructure. This legislation was passed in April 2022.

In summary, the Laminaria East oil project is part of the broader Laminaria and Corallina fields development, characterized by significant subsea production infrastructure, a large FPSO, and a complex decommissioning process currently underway.