Australia’s Woodside to operate Bass Strait oil, gas JV

Market: Condensate, Crude oil, Natural gas
29/07/25

Australian independent Woodside Energy will take over operations at the ExxonMobil-operated Bass Strait assets in 2026, including the Gippsland basin joint venture (GBJV) offshore Australia's Victoria state.

Assets in the 50:50 GBJV include the 700 TJ/d Longford gas plants, the Long Island Point gas liquids facility, and pipelines linking the offshore operations with Australia's mainland. Woodside will also take over operatorship at the Kipper unit joint venture, which is 32.5pc owned by ExxonMobil, 32.5pc by Woodside, and 35pc by Japan's Mitsui.

Operatorship of a larger group of assets in Australia will help create $60mn in synergies for the firm, Woodside said on 29 July, with four potential development wells also identified that could produce 200PJ (5.34bn m³) for the domestic market.

Drilling for the $200mn Kipper 1B project is expected to begin in the present quarter, Woodside said this month, which follows the Kipper compression project completed in October last year to maintain steady production.

The JV plans to install one subsea well at the Kipper field and upgrade the West Tuna platform, with works to be completed ahead of winter 2026. Combined with Kipper 1B, four or five gas wells drilled under the Turrum Phase 3 scheme is expected to add more than 100PJ of Woodside equity interest to the gas market. Drilling is expected to begin in July-December this year.

ExxonMobil previously planned to sell its stake and operatorship in the Bass Strait in 2019, cancelling the sale process 14 months later after market evaluation.

The depleting Bass Strait fields have historically supplied most of southeastern Australia's natural gas, but the 350 TJ/d Longford gas plant 3 is closing in December 2028 and plant 2 will close in 2033, likely signalling the end of Longford production.

Bass strait operations began in 1969, and about 10 trillion ft³ (283bn m³) of gas and 4bn bl of oil have been produced.

Woodside's share of Bass Strait crude and condensate output was 5,000 b/d in April-June, 40,000 b/d of oil equivalent of gas and 8,000 b/d of natural gas liquids.

By Tom Major

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