Clough cements contract with Waitsia JV

The Waitsia joint venture has awarded Clough the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract for stage two of the gas development in the Perth Basin, Western Australia.

Waitsia is ranked as one of the largest gas fields ever discovered onshore Australia, with stage two expected to bring economic benefits to the Mid West region during both the construction and operating phases.

Clough chief executive officer and managing director Peter Bennett said the company and the JV (Mitsui E&P Australia, Beach Energy) had been working together to optimise the design of the stage two project.

“The Waitsia project development is a showcase for the benefits in true collaboration between client and contractor and we are very grateful to the Waitsia team for this opportunity,” Bennett said.

The Waitsia stage two project includes a new 250 terajoules a day gas processing plant with a 20-year life-cycle that will convey gas via the nearby Dampier to Bunbury natural gas pipeline.

Stage two involves the drilling of up to six wells, construction of a new gas processing facility and associated gas gathering infrastructure.

Clough executive vice president for Australia and Asia Pacific John Galvin added: “During the construction phase an estimated 200 jobs will be created which will bring significant economic benefits to the local region and Western Australia at large.”

Mitsui and Beach announced at the end of last year that they had made a final investment decision (FID) on the stage two project after signing key commercial agreements with the North West Shelf joint venture, the Western Australian Government and the Australian Gas Infrastructure Group.