The Scarborough Joint Venture has secured key primary approvals from the Commonwealth-Western Australian Joint Authority (Australia) for the development of its Scarborough gas project off western Australia; more precisely, the Scarborough Field Development Plan (FDP) and the pipeline between the offshore gas field and the Pluto LNG plant have been approved. The Australian energy group Woodside will thus start petroleum recovery operations from Petroleum Production Licences WA-61-L and WA-62-L.
The Scarborough field is located about 375 km off the coast of Western Australia and is estimated to contain 11.1 tcf (314 bcm) of dry gas. Its gas production will be transported through a 430-km-long gas pipeline to the Pluto LNG terminal, where a second liquefaction train will be added, and which should export the first LNG cargo of Scarborough gas in 2026. Woodside - the operator of the Scarborough joint venture with a 73.5% stake, in partnership with BHP Petroleum (26.5%) - made final investment decisions (FIDs) for the US$12bn Scarborough and Pluto Train 2 developments in November 2021.