Woodside has begun the process of ceasing production from the Enfield oil field in production license WA-28-L off Western Australia and remove the Nganhurra FPSO from the area.
The Perth-headquartered oil and gas company has submitted an environmental plan with NOPSEMA to cease production and decommission, dismantle and remove facilities from the oil field, located approximately 52km north-west of Exmouth.
Developed using subsea wells, manifolds and flowline systems tied back to the Nganhurra floating production, storage and offloading system (FPSO), the Enfield field has been in production since 2006.
Woodside is planning to flush the subsea and topside infrastructure prior to disconnecting the Nganhurra FPSO vessel from the field, remove the Riser Turret Mooring (RTM) from field and isolate and preserve subsea infrastructure in preparation for future decommissioning activities.
Further activities anticipated to be undertaken as part of the environment plan include disconnection and sail away of the FPSO, preservation of the Nganhurra subsea systems until the wells are plugged and abandoned and subsea infrastructure is decommissioned and removal of the RTM from field following the disconnection of risers, electro-hydraulic umbilical (EHU), removal of buoyancy modules and disconnection of mooring lines from RTM.
The RTM may remain in-situ for a period of time post the FPSO disconnection.
Plugging and abandonment of remaining wells and the decommissioning of remaining subsea equipment will be subject to future stakeholder engagement and environment plan submissions.
NOPSEMA’s decision on whether to approve the submitted environment plan is expected to be made by September 4.
Woodside is the operator of the WA-28-L license with JV partner Mitsui E&P Australia.
