AREEA congratulates member company Woodside Energy following a huge step forward this week in its $52 billion vision for Burrup Hub, including the Scarborough offshore gas project and Pluto Train 2 expansion.
The Scarborough JV, led by Woodside, was on Monday (9 November) offered the grant of petroleum production licences from the Commonwealth and Western Australian Governments.
In a statement, Federal Minister for Resources, Water and Northern Australia Keith Pitt, said the production licences offered by the Offshore Petroleum Joint Authority were a significant milestone and would generate thousands of new jobs and supply gas for use in Australia and for export.
“Developing Scarborough, through expansion of the Pluto LNG facility, is expected to create more than 3,200 jobs during the construction phase, and an average of more than 1,300 jobs a year during operations,” he said.
“The project will also help maintain Australia’s position as one of the world’s largest LNG producers whilst contributing to domestic gas supply and supporting our economy.”
Woodside CEO Peter Coleman said the Scarborough Joint Venture intends to accept the production licences, demonstrating the strong commitment from both joint venture participants and the State and Federal Governments to taking the project forward.
“The impacts of COVID-19 and the ensuing volatility in market and investment conditions have provided us with an opportunity to review options for the Scarborough development, allowing us to improve execution certainty and increase the value of this world-class resource,” Mr Coleman said.
“With Production Licences and the Offshore Project Proposal environmental approval in place, Woodside will have secured the key primary Commonwealth approvals required to support a final investment decision.”
Woodside, together with joint venture participant BHP, is targeting a final investment decision for the Scarborough project in the second half of 2021.
Minister Pitt said the Coalition Government was pleased to see the project’s engineering, commercial and regulatory work was well advanced.
“Investments in gas and other Australian resources projects have been the main driver of the Australian economy in recent decades. Progress on the Scarborough project is another show of confidence in the long-term future of Australia’s resources sector and resources jobs,” Minister Pitt said.
