Woodside Petroleum has got the formal go-ahead to pursue a wider range of development options for its deepwater Browse project off Western Australia, after having changes allowed to the gas field retention lease.

The Australian operator is already weighing up a potential Floating Liquefied Natural Gas (FLNG) solution for Browse, after scrapping previous plans for a major onshore LNG plant (see DI, 6 May 2013, page 8) due to escalating costs. It is also considering a smaller onshore plant alternative.

The variation to the Browse retention leases, granted by the state of Western Australia, will apply to the end of 2014 and essentially allows the JV to progress the selection of an alternative development concept and commence related design and engineering work.

An FLNG solution is the favoured solution for the project, with Woodside and its joint venture partners working with Shell (already one of the partners and which also owns nearly a quarter of Woodside) on the concept after signing a technology agreement with the Anglo-Dutch major, which is already underway with its own giant Prelude FLNG project off western Australia (due onstream in 2017). Using an FLNG solution is estimated will save around 20% on Browse compared to the original onshore plant plan.

The other Browse partners include BP, PetroChina, Mitsui & Co and Mitsubishi Corp.

The project has fields located in the Browse Basin in leases WA-28- R, WA-29-R, WA-30-R, WA-31-R and WA-32-R.

Woodside said that the Browse JV participants “are currently in discussions in relation to evaluation of development concepts to commercialise the Browse resources. The selection of any development concept requires approval by the Browse Joint Venture participants”. Woodside CEO Peter Coleman said when the original plan was shelved that FLNG “had the potential to commercialise the Browse resources in the earliest possible time frame”.

Woodside is the operator of the East and West Browse joint ventures, holding a 34% equity interest in the East Browse JV and a 17% equity interest in the West Browse JV.

Browse holds reserves of 15.5 Tcf (439.1 Bcm) of dry gas and 417 MMbbl of condensate.