A recent breach flagged by Australia’s offshore regulator Nopsema during decommissioning activities on the Stybarrow field highlights some of the hazards now facing operators.
As Australia’s decommissioning effort gathers pace — an industry estimated to be worth US$60bn over the next few decades — oil and gas operators must seek to navigate what is becoming an increasingly complex legal and regulatory minefield.
Nopsema recently issued US-based offshore contractor McDermott with an ‘Improvement Notice’ citing safety concerns on its DLV2000 construction vessel.
The ship was undertaking decommissioning activities at the Stybarrow field for operator, Woodside Energy, but was ordered to cease work until it had rectified any breaches.
A Nopsema inspector visited the ship in March and raised concerns about the securing of a portable generator, which it was claimed could have resulted in heightened health and safety risks to personnel on board.
“The incorrect securing of the generator resulted in the generator shifting, when the generator was used as a secure point for belaying a tag line, subsequently the tag line became snagged,” the Improvment Notice stated on 20 March, 2025.
“The Manual does not describe the assurance procedure to ensure the generator has suitable sea fastening.”
The status of the case has now been marked as ‘Complied With’, which suggests that McDermott took immediate action to rectify the issue.
It highlights the increasing glare of regulators on the industry as it grapples with the decommissioning challenge.
Nopsema has scrutinised the work of other offshore contractors in recent times, including Subsea 7, though this was not linked to decommissioning activities.
The Stybarrow development is situated within production licence WA-32-L located on the North West Shelf in Commonwealth waters ranging from 700 to 850 metres in depth, approximately 51 km northwest of the North West Cape, Western Australia.
First oil was produced at the field in 2007 and production ceased in 2015.
Subsea infrastructure connected the field’s reservoirs to the Stybarrow floating production, storage and offtake (FPSO) facility, which has already been removed.
At the cessation of production, all wells were bull-headed and valves were pressure tested and closed, while flowlines were flushed with treated seawater.
Ongoing operations involve periodic surface and subsea inspections of the remaining subsea infrastructure.
“Well abandonment and full-field decommissioning of the remaining infrastructure will be undertaken at a future point in time and will be subject to separate approvals for this phase of activities,” Nopsema states in an information resource on its website.
