The company's Oil Business Unit Director, Dr Duncan Clegg, feels that the Board made the right decision. According to Clegg, "We now have all of our major environmental, government and project approvals in place and are well positioned to bring the field into production by the fourth quarter of 2006."

Woodside is planning for five production wells and six water injection wells - for reservoir pressure support - that will be connected via flowlines to a FPSO moored over the field. The yet to be constructed vessel will have a storage capacity of 900,000 barrels and can discharge oil to awaiting tankers with a capacity of around 550,000 barrels.

The FPSO will be a new, double-hull Suezmax-type trading tanker with topsides of 8000 tonnes and will be built by Samsung Heavy Industries in South Korea. It will have a dead weight of about 150,000 tonnes and will be about 270 metres long. It will have a storage capacity of 900,000 barrels and will discharge oil to trading tankers with capacity of about 550,000 barrels.

"The development will be our first production in the Exmouth region, with initial output planned at about 100,000 barrels a day, and will provide growth potential through the tie-back of nearby discoveries such as the Laverda field and future regional discoveries," said Dr Clegg.

The Technip Subsea 7 Enfield joint venture will do offshore installation work and supply subsea flowlines and dynamic risers. Subsea hardware will be supplied by FMC. Topsides' engineering and procurement services are being managed in Perth by the Fluor Amec Joint Venture.

Enfield is located in Block WA-271-P, 40 km off the coast of Exmouth. It has estimated reserves of around 125 million barrels of oil. Woodside is the sole owner and operator of the block.