Scarborough Gas Pipeline

This article is part of the Global Fossil Infrastructure Tracker, a project of Global Energy Monitor.

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The Scarborough Gas Pipeline is a proposed offshore natural gas pipeline in Western Australia.

Location

The pipeline would run from the offshore Scarborough gas field to the Pluto LNG Terminal on the Burrup Peninsula in Western Australia.

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Project details

• Operator: Woodside Energy
• Owner: Woodside Energy
• Parent company: Woodside Energy
• Length: 430 - 435 kilometers
• Diameter: 32/36 inches
• Status: Proposed
• Start year: 2026

Background

In July 2019, Woodside Energy awarded a construction contract to build the pipeline to Royal Boskalis Westminster N.V. The pipeline was estimated to cost 145 million euros and scheduled for completion in 2022.

In January 2020, the Western Australia Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) recommended that the pipeline be approved.

Woodside Energy had originally targeted 2020 for a financial investment decision (FID) and 2023 for production to begin. In March 2020, Woodside announced it would defer the FID of several projects until 2021, including the Scarborough Gas Pipeline.

In August 2021, prior to an intended end-of-year FID, Woodside raised the cost investment by about 5%, increasing the total project cost to US$12 billion, including onshore and offshore components.

The Scarborough gas field is located around 375 km off the Burrup Peninsula. Woodside Energy's proposed Scarborough project intends to develop the Scarborough by building a floating offshore production unit, connecting it to the existing Pluto LNG Terminal through the 430-km Scarborough gas pipeline (also referred to as "trunkline"), and expanding the LNG export terminal's capacity (Train 2).

In November 2021, "final investment decisions were made to approve the Scarborough and Pluto Train 2 developments" with targets to begin operations in 2026, according to an announcement made by Woodside.

According to company documentation, work on the pipeline started on time, in mid 2023. In April 2023, the company announced that "The Scarborough and Pluto Train 2 projects in Western Australia are now 30% complete, with manufacturing of the export trunkline 86% complete", "subsea structure manufacturing and trunkline shore crossing preparations at Pluto commenced," and on track to begin operations by 2026. The resulting gas from the Scarborough project is intended both for LNG exports and domestic use.

Opposition

The Scarborough project has been faced with strong opposition. As of February 2023, at least two outstanding court cases were targeting the project.

The first of these court cases, initiated by advocacy group Conservation Council of Western Australia, is concerned with the alleged unlawful approval of the expansion of the Pluto LNG Terminal, and it argues that it "failed to properly consider and control the environmental harm generated by the development's greenhouse gas emissions."

The second case, started by Australian Conservation Foundation in June 2022, argues that the resulting emissions from the Scarborough project will impact the Great Barrier Reef in Australia's east coast. The environmental NGO argues that "wherever it's burned, the gas from Scarborough will significantly raise greenhouse gas emissions globally and make climate impacts like bushfires and floods more extreme". According to this organization, Scarborough's project's will emit 1.37 billion tonnes of carbon pollution, making it "one of the most polluting fossil fuel projects currently proposed in Australia."

Other concerns regarding the project include the possible destruction of prehistoric, 50,000 year-old rock engravings in the Burrup Peninsula, a sacred place for First Nations People, as well as threats to local ocean biodiversity.

In 2021, the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA) published an article analyzing Scarborough's financial and economic strategy. According to the article, Woodside's project is overly expensive compared to similar projects in Qatar and the financial implications of its emissions have not been informed to its investors. Moreover, the article highlights how the Woodside's "emission reduction commitments are far less ambitious than many of their competitors and are not consistent with the Paris Agreement."

The Australasian Centre for Corporate Responsibility also expressed their opposition to the Scarborough project. Dan Gocher, director of climate and environment for the Centre, said that "Scarborough is a disaster for our climate, for our iconic marine life and for globally significant Aboriginal heritage on the Burrup Peninsula," adding that this was the "single-most-polluting fossil fuel development currently proposed in Australia."

In August 2022, around 20 Greenpeace activists in Germany blocked the Emma Oldendorff, a vessel that was transporting materials to build the Scarborough gas pipeline.

In July 2023, The Climate Council published a media release opposing the Scarborough project, saying that "should Woodside's plans to keep pumping more gas well into the second half of this century be approved, it would herald Australia’s largest global contribution to climate change, swamping any other national efforts to cut harmful emissions."

Woodside's CEO has faced opposition by saying that "The Scarborough reservoir contains only around 0.1 per cent carbon dioxide, and Scarborough gas, processed through the efficient and expanded Pluto LNG facility, supports the decarbonisation goals of our customers in Asia." In the Woodside's website, the project is described as playing a key role in "supporting those countries that still lack access to affordable and reliable energy" through the global energy transition. The same source also states that "Scarborough gas processed through Pluto Train 2 will be one of the lowest intensity sources of LNG delivered to customers in north Asia."