Lambert West’s Goldilocks moment delivers for NWS JV
The stars have aligned for Lambert West, which was safely brought online in August – extending the life of the Angel platform and continuing gas processing at the Karratha Gas Plant.
The Angel platform sits about 120 kilometres north-west of Karratha and is connected to the North Rankin Complex (NRC) via a 50-kilometre subsea pipeline.
Gas from Lambert West travels through a flowline, collecting gas from neighbouring well, Lambert Deep, before heading to the Angel platform.
Project Manager Craig Newland says collaboration was the high point.
“It was a great team effort,” Craig reflects. “Seeing people come together and support one another made it especially enjoyable.”
Lambert West has been on Woodside’s radar for some time. However, it was passed over in 2014 when the North West Shelf was capacity constrained and other opportunities were being executed.
“We were able to reevaluate Lambert West because it was already under an existing environmental plan,” Principal Reservoir Engineer Darren Hunter explains.
“While other opportunities might have been larger in terms of volume, we couldn’t have delivered them anywhere near as quickly.”
Execution of the plan hinged on two things: access to a drilling campaign and availability of a xmas tree.
The Transocean Endurance was available as it had just wrapped up decommissioning at Stybarrow, and the team cleverly repurposed a spare tree to avoid long lead times.
“The clock was ticking from day one because Lambert West was relying on Lambert Deep still being around for the flowline,” Geological Adviser Matt Docherty discloses.
“If we drilled too early, we’d have produced Lambert West without gaining extra production from Lambert Deep; too late, and Lambert Deep would have wound down, leaving value on the table for Lambert West.
“We were aiming to find the sweet spot, a clear Goldilocks zone somewhere between 2025 and 2026.”
So the stars had aligned for Lambert West and the next goal was the green light.
The North West Shelf Joint Venture participants took the final investment decision in January 2024.
“The fact that Woodside was willing to be bold and the venture was willing to back the opportunity was heartening to see,” Darren says.
After a successful drilling campaign, the subsea infrastructure was installed, ready for start-up.
“There’s a 500-metre flexible flowline which connects Lambert West to the Lambert Deep manifold, which then goes through the same pipeline about 15 km away to the Angel platform,” Craig explains.
There were some changes to the start-up strategy that came with challenges, but GWA Delivery Lead Caitlin Jordan points out the team were able to work through them effectively “through hard work and determination”.
Start-up took place on 9 August with the team positioned offshore at North Rankin.
“It's very exciting when you first open the choke and see flow through the well,” Caitlin says.
“We finished the campaign on time, had no process safety incidents and hit the milestones that we wanted to hit in terms of performance.”
It’s now producing and has the potential to extend the life of its neighbouring well and sustain production from the Angel platform.
“We're not only producing gas from Lambert West, but we're also allowing additional volumes to be produced from Lambert Deep through life extension of that well, which is a secondary benefit but also quite material,” Darren points out.
In terms of size, Lambert West is no Scarborough or Browse; but its importance to Woodside stems not only from the added revenue but also the much-needed gas supplies it produces.
“It’s a wonderful feeling to see this level of production from the Angel platform,” Caitlin says.
And every little bit helps in keeping KGP busy.
Find out more about Woodside's Australian operations here.
