Woodside’s floating gas platform arrives off WA coast
A massive floating platform has arrived off the coast of Western Australia as Woodside Energy’s controversial Scarborough gas project nears production.
The 70,000-tonne floating production unit was slowly towed by five large ocean towing vessels to its location 375 kilometers off Karratha, 7,400 kilometers from China.
The journey began in November and Woodside likened it to towing a block of flats at jogging pace from Perth to Sydney and back again.
One of the largest semi-submersible facilities ever built, the floating production unit features six deck levels, 75 beds, a gym and open-plan communal living spaces.
It is 165 meters long from keel to top, taller than a 50-storey building.
The unit will be used to separate, dry and compress natural gas from the first eight wells in the Scarborough gas field when the project comes into production in the second half of 2026.
The purified gas will then travel via a 430km pipeline to Woodside’s Pluto LNG facility on the Burrup Peninsula for liquefaction and export to Asia.
Woodside acting chief executive Liz Westcott said having the floating production unit safely on site was a crucial way to start 2026.
“Its successful arrival is another demonstration of the collaboration of Woodside, McDermott and subcontractor teams and their commitment to the safe delivery of the project,” he said.
Woodside says the Scarborough project is 91 per cent complete and will provide up to eight million tonnes of LNG for export per year, as well as up to 225 terajoules of gas per day for domestic consumption.
Woodside said the $18.6 billion project would boost the Australian economy by $174 billion, support more than 3,000 jobs a year and create $55.5 billion in direct and indirect tax payments.
Environmentalists have strongly condemned the project for its potential to contribute greatly to climate change, saying it will produce an estimated 1.37 billion tonnes of emissions by 2055.
Woodside shares fell 1.4 percent to $23.38 on Tuesday afternoon.
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