Oilies on cyclone watch Marija Zivkovic Tuesday, 15 December 2009
OILIES operating off the coast of Western Australia have evacuated workers from their projects as the region prepares for the season’s first tropical cyclone.
The weather bureau said Laurence, currently a category-2 cyclone, was moving parallel to the Kimberley coast and slowly intensifying.
The bureau said gales with gusts up to 110 kilometres per hour were being experienced over the north Kimberley coast with heavy rains extending into the western Kimberley later today.
PTTEP Australasia spokesperson Errol Considine told PNN the company had evacuated all staff from its Montara, Jabiru and Challis fields following the cyclone warning.
Workers were also evacuated from the Songa Venus semi-submersible rig currently drilling the Cornea-3 in WA-342-P of the Browse Basin, while ConocoPhillips and Karoon Gas have temporarily suspended operations in WA-398.
Karoon said all nonessential personnel were evacuated on Saturday and drilling operations on the Transocean Legend were temporarily suspended. The Transocean Legend is drilling the Poseidon-2 well.
The company added that the 3D seismic acquisition program carried out by the Geowave Voyager in the area was also suspended and would resume as soon as weather conditions allow.
Woodside Petroleum, which operates a number of projects in the area, yesterday said it was closely monitoring Laurence and had not initiated any evacuations.
PNN contacted Woodside this morning, but the company was unavailable for comment.
Dow Jones Newswires quoted chief executive Don Voelte as saying yesterday that the company had dealt with many cyclones before and, if it continued on a southwesterly path, staff would be evacuated.
WA’s northwest, home to some of Australia’s largest oil and gas projects, is expected to experience about five tropical cyclones this season, according to an October forecast by the bureau.
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