Woodside has submitted an environmental plan to the national regulator to permanently plug and abandon two production wells and one exploration well offshore Western Australia.
Currently under assessment by the National Offshore Petroleum Safety and Environmental Management Authority (NOPSEMA), the company advised that the plugging would involve removing temporary plugs and installing permanent abandonment barriers in Yodel-3, Yodel-4 and Capella-1 using a mobile offshore drilling unit (MODU).
Originally, Woodside submitted the environment plan to NOPSEMA as part of the Echo-Yodel and Capella plugging and Echo-Yodel decommissioning, but the company decided to remove the plugging and transfer it to this new plan.
The proposed petroleum activities program within permit areas WA-1-L and WA-23-L is scheduled for between the first quarter of 2021 and fourth quarter of 2023, with permanent plugging activities for the three wells expected to take between 20-60 days per well to complete.
The Echo-Yodel field was brought on stream in late 2001 and reached the end of its life in 2012 with Yodel-4 ceasing production in 2006 and Yodel-3 in 2012.
Capella-1, located 40 km northwest of the Yodel wells, had been left as a suspended gas discovery since it was drilled in 1996. The wellhead was left in place with the original intention of returning to run a drill stem test.
Woodside reported last year that the Yodel infrastructure is 140km north west of Dampier at 140-160m water depth. The subsea infrastructure includes a 23km pipeline, 23km umbilical, two wells with wellhead and xmas trees.