Mr HATTON - 1999-10-13
I understand the minister recently attended a naming ceremony for the floating production offtake vessel known as the Northern Endeavour. I understand this vessel will stationed in Northern Territory waters. This is particularly good news for the Northern Territory. Could the minister outline for us the status of this vessel? What are the expected flow-on benefits for Northern Territory employment and the Northern Territory economy?
ANSWER
Mr Speaker, the question enables me to indicate how just one aspect of the offshore oil and gas industry will benefit the Territory.
The Northern Endeavour, the world’s largest floating production, storage and offloading vessel, is approximately 1 AFL football fields long. It is to be stationed at the Laminaria and Corallina oilfields, some 500 km offshore from Darwin. It arrived there last week and is now undergoing installation and hook-up. Owned and operated by Woodside, it is expected to start production in mid-November, with the first oil intake of some 160 000 barrels expected on 20 November.
The really good news about this project is that the Northern Territory stands to benefit considerably from supply and service work. 75% of the 58 Northern Endeavour support contracts involve Darwin-based companies. 29 contracts are sourced primarily from Darwin firms and 14 have significant Darwin content through a local agent. Overall, I expect Woodside’s annual Northern Territory expenditure in relation to this vessel to be $20-$25m. That is excellent news for our industry, especially for Aker Shore Base, the partnership between Aker Marine and the local firm Shorelands. The Chief Minister opened their new premises at the new port on Monday. Aker Shore Base have won the Woodside Laminaria logistics contract, worth $5m.
Woodside’s prime maintenance contractor and several of the other contractors have allowed the offshore workforce involved with the vessel the choice of living in Darwin or Perth. All will have to rotate through Darwin, the only staging post for the 4 helicopters that will be travelling to the Northern Endeavour. I’d certainly like to see all of the project’s operational and support staff based here in Darwin. That’s not the case at the moment.
Nor does Woodside have its operational base for this project in Darwin. It chooses to use Perth, some 4000 km away. Overseas operators wouldn’t base their support for North Sea oil in Moscow, but some of these companies seem to think a Perth base is a good option. I’m continuing to pursue this matter at the highest level with senior management of Woodside. I’ve had meetings with the chairman and senior board members. I plan to meet the board later this year to again push the case, because I believe Darwin can successfully support this whole project.
Woodside have certainly taken several actions to ensure Darwin operators get a slice of the action. They’ve employed an industrial liaison officer and released a Northern Territory guide to doing business with Woodside. We’ve just got to keep working on them to convince them to come here permanently. The Northern Endeavour’s positioning off our shores certainly will help our reputation as a creditable supply and service centre for the region, and this government will continue to work hard to ensure we create more and more jobs for Territorians as a result of activities offshore.
ANSWER
Mr Speaker, the question enables me to indicate how just one aspect of the offshore oil and gas industry will benefit the Territory.
The Northern Endeavour, the world’s largest floating production, storage and offloading vessel, is approximately 1 AFL football fields long. It is to be stationed at the Laminaria and Corallina oilfields, some 500 km offshore from Darwin. It arrived there last week and is now undergoing installation and hook-up. Owned and operated by Woodside, it is expected to start production in mid-November, with the first oil intake of some 160 000 barrels expected on 20 November.
The really good news about this project is that the Northern Territory stands to benefit considerably from supply and service work. 75% of the 58 Northern Endeavour support contracts involve Darwin-based companies. 29 contracts are sourced primarily from Darwin firms and 14 have significant Darwin content through a local agent. Overall, I expect Woodside’s annual Northern Territory expenditure in relation to this vessel to be $20-$25m. That is excellent news for our industry, especially for Aker Shore Base, the partnership between Aker Marine and the local firm Shorelands. The Chief Minister opened their new premises at the new port on Monday. Aker Shore Base have won the Woodside Laminaria logistics contract, worth $5m.
Woodside’s prime maintenance contractor and several of the other contractors have allowed the offshore workforce involved with the vessel the choice of living in Darwin or Perth. All will have to rotate through Darwin, the only staging post for the 4 helicopters that will be travelling to the Northern Endeavour. I’d certainly like to see all of the project’s operational and support staff based here in Darwin. That’s not the case at the moment.
Nor does Woodside have its operational base for this project in Darwin. It chooses to use Perth, some 4000 km away. Overseas operators wouldn’t base their support for North Sea oil in Moscow, but some of these companies seem to think a Perth base is a good option. I’m continuing to pursue this matter at the highest level with senior management of Woodside. I’ve had meetings with the chairman and senior board members. I plan to meet the board later this year to again push the case, because I believe Darwin can successfully support this whole project.
Woodside have certainly taken several actions to ensure Darwin operators get a slice of the action. They’ve employed an industrial liaison officer and released a Northern Territory guide to doing business with Woodside. We’ve just got to keep working on them to convince them to come here permanently. The Northern Endeavour’s positioning off our shores certainly will help our reputation as a creditable supply and service centre for the region, and this government will continue to work hard to ensure we create more and more jobs for Territorians as a result of activities offshore.
Last updated: 09 Aug 2016