North West Shelf Subsea Tieback Program

Project at a glance
Contact Details
The North West Shelf (NWS) subsea tieback (SSTB) program is focused on using existing infrastructure to develop reserves from existing and undeveloped NWS Project fields.
The NWS SSTB program will use the same types of equipment, methodology and approach to contracting to develop these fields that will connect into the NWS Project’s existing offshore infrastructure.
The principal NWS Project oil and gas fields are located about 125 kilometres north-west of Karratha, Western Australia in water depths ranging between 80 and 131 metres, covering a total area of 3,134 square kilometres.
Current appraisal and development activities are focused on opportunities close to existing infrastructure.
Offshore, the North Rankin Complex, the Goodwyn A platform (GWA) and the Angel platform dehydrate the raw hydrocarbons for export via a dual subsea pipeline system to the Karratha Gas Plant (KGP).
The NWS Project’s onshore KGP consists of five LNG trains and a domestic gas plant and is located on the Burrup Peninsula of North Western Australia, near the town of Karratha. The KGP processes raw dehydrated gas and exports LNG, condensate and LPG via ship together with conditioned gas via the domestic gas pipeline.
Woodside will develop the Scarborough gas resource through new offshore facilities connected by an approximately 430 km pipeline to a brownfield expansion of the existing Pluto LNG onshore facility (Pluto Train 2).
The proposal is to initially develop the gas field with eight subsea, high-rate gas wells, and thirteen wells drilled over the life of the Scarborough field, with all wells tied back to a semi-submersible floating production unit (FPU) moored in 950 m of water close to the Scarborough field.
On 1 January 2022, Woodside Energy issued Full Notice to Proceed (FNTP) to Bechtel (Western Australia) Pty Ltd and Bechtel International, Inc (Bechtel) for the Pluto Train 2 Project Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) scope of work.
Woodside is pursuing an opportunity to process up to 3 Mtpa of Scarborough gas via the existing Pluto Train 1. This project is known as the Pluto Train 1 Scarborough Modifications Project and involves modifying the existing Pluto Train 1 facility to enable it to process Scarborough gas.