Woodside has commenced front end engineering and design activities for their proposal to develop additional gas resources from the Scarborough and Browse/North West Shelf Extension projects.
Woodside expects to invest more than $A40 billion of capital expenditure to develop 20 to 25 trillion cubic feet of gross dry gas resources for customers in Western Australia and around the world.
At a recent CEDA WA event, Woodside Chief Operations Officer Meg O’Neill said they are making progress in terms of regulatory approvals, with the EPA recently recommending environmental approval of the interconnector.
“We are progressing a range of other applications for environmental approvals relating to the offshore and onshore components,” she said.
“This process involves extensive stakeholder consultation to ensure that communities understand what is planned and that we understand and respond to their questions.”
The recent release of an economic impact assessment by ACIL Allen shows the project will have a massive contribution to the economy, employment and energy in Western Australia and the nation over the lifetime of these proposed developments.
According to the report, the development is expected to boost Australia’s GDP by $414 billion during 2019-2063, of which 99 per cent will be in WA, which is equivalent to 23 per cent of Australia’s GDP in 2017-18.
Chamber of Minerals and Energy of Western Australia (CME) chief executive Paul Everingham said WA would receive the majority of the significant spend through employment, taxation and royalties and exports, providing a windfall for the State’s finances.
“More than $82 billion in taxation and royalties are estimated to be directly paid from the Burrup Hub, and another $44 billion indirectly.”
The Burrup project aims to create a regional LNG hub on the Burrup Peninsula in the Pilbara region of Western Australia, which will eventually develop some 20 to 25 trillion cubic feet of gross dry gas resources from the Scarborough, Browse and Pluto fields. The project is of a massive scale, with expectations being that the Burrup Hub could process more gas than the entire volume extracted from the north west shelf since start-up in 1984.
If it goes ahead, the construction of Woodside’s new Burrup Hub would reach its peak in 2023 with a workforce of more than 4,600 workers.
