ExxonMobil's Australian subsidiary Esso Australia, the operator of the Gippsland Basin Joint Venture, has recently started a technical tender procedure process for the decommissioning of several offshore platforms in Australia's Bass Strait.
For this initial tender round, ExxonMobil is seeking technical proposals from a variety of experienced offshore heavy lift contractors, each of whom needs to detail how they plan to carry out the platform removal activities required.
“Given the complexity of decommissioning offshore facilities, we expect each vendor will propose a unique approach to platform removal in Bass Strait, based on their capabilities and experience,” said ExxonMobil Australia Chair, Dylan Pugh.
“We will then consider all the options presented, ensuring they meet our own, community and regulator expectations, before moving onto the final commercial tender process next year.”
According to the company, Esso Australia has over the last few year completed around $600 million of early decommissioning works in the Bass Strait, including removing the Seahorse and Tarwhine facilities, completing plug and abandonment activities on our Blackback and Whiting wells, and progressing well-decommissioning activities on Kingfish B and Mackerel.
Pugh said: “As we continue to progress these important early decommissioning works, this technical tender is an important step in preparing for the eventual decommissioning of a number of our facilities that are to cease production in the near future.”
Esso Australia Pty operates the Gippsland Basin Joint Venture on behalf of a 50-50 joint venture with BHP Petroleum (now owned by Woodside) and Esso Australia.
According to a fact sheet shared by Esso Australia in 2019, the offshore installations in the Bass Strait at the time consisted of 19 platforms
and four subsea facilities.