The National Offshore Petroleum Safety and Environmental Management Authority told Woodside to modify its EP as it was "not reasonably satisfied" with its first one relating to the Enfield oil field in production licence WA-28-L in Commonwealth waters, about 52km north-west of Exmouth.

 

The deadline for re-submission was extended from September 30 to October 13 - last Friday - and NOPSEMA should make a final decision by November 12.

 

Energy News has learned that Woodside's environmental team submitted the updated EP last Friday, right on the deadline.

 

Woodside (60%) operates the permit, with Mitsui E&P holding the remaining equity.

 

The plan involves the FPSO's disconnection and sail-away; preserving the Nganhurra subsea systems until the wells are plugged and abandoned and subsea infrastructure is decommissioned; and removing the riser turret mooring from the field once the risers and the electro-hydraulic umbilical are disconnected and the buoyancy modules are removed.

 

Well intervention and/or abandonment of selected wells may also be done as part of the EP scope, depending on the mobile offshore drilling unit contracting opportunities.

 

P&A of remaining wells and the decommissioning of remaining subsea equipment will need more stakeholder engagement and EP submissions.

 

NOPSEMA said it wasn't satisfied that Woodside's first EP failed to demonstrate that it was appropriate for the nature and scale of the activity; nor that the environmental impacts and risks would be reduced to as low as reasonably practicable, or be of an acceptable level.

 

The regulator was also unsatisfied that the EP, originally submitted in August, provided for appropriate environmental performance outcomes, environmental performance standards and measurement criteria.

 

The Enfield field was discovered in 1999 and the FPSO has been in production since 2006.