Wedoany.com Report-Oct 11，Australian energy player Woodside is continuing to make inroads in developing its giant energy project off the coast of Australia. The latest achievement, concerning an export trunkline installation at this natural gas project, took around a year to be finished, however, Italy’s Saipem has now wrapped up the work. As a result, the pre-commissioning of the trunkline in preparation for the hook-up of the subsea infrastructure will now begin, bringing the $12.5 billion project closer to the first liquefied natural gas (LNG) cargo slated for 2026.

Woodside has confirmed that its Scarborough energy project, which was 67% complete at the end of June 2024, is now more than two-thirds ready, as Saipem has completed the trunkline installation after around 12 months, 433 kilometers, and more than 36,000 lengths of pipe at depths of up to 1,400 meters.

At the end of January 2024, Saipem revealed an incident on the Castorone pipelay vessel during normal pipelaying operations offshore Australia, but the incident did not cause injuries to personnel or any major damages to the ship, however, localized damage to the trunkline was reported. In mid-February, the Italian player got NOPSEMA’s nod to restart Castorone operations.

When operational, the 433 km trunkline will transport gas from the offshore Scarborough field to the onshore Pluto LNG processing facility in Karratha, helping to meet demand for the lower carbon and reliable energy the world needs today and into the future, according to Woodside.

The delivery of the first LNG cargo is expected in 2026, generating more than A$50 billion ($33.43 billion) in direct and indirect taxes for Australia’s economy, over 3,000 jobs during the construction phase, and creating or sustaining almost 600 jobs on average during operations.