Fossil Energy – Incident Saipem
According to Upstream, Italian contractor Saipem has halted pipelaying operations at Woodside Energy’s multi-billion dollar Scarborough gas project offshore Australia after the second incident this month on the Castorone resulted in a ‘gaping hole’ in the already installed part of the trunkline.
OER International reported on the incident already yesterday.
“The initial assessment appears to indicate that the cause of the incident could be software anomaly. which is under investigation,” said Saipem.
“Alongside the investigation, plans for the trunkline remediation works are under way with safety as our priority,” added the contractor.
Saipem added that a buckle can occur during pipeline installation and, as such, it has in place “approved procedures and resources available for intervention and remediation purposes”.
“Woodside can confirm two separate incidents in January on a contractor vessel while it was working on the installation of the Scarborough trunkline. Neither incident resulted in any injuries to personnel and localised damage to the trunkline was sustained which will be remediated,” according to Upstream.
“The safety of our teams, the environment and our assets remain the highest priority on all activities. We are continuing to support our contractor in their ongoing work on the trunkline installation.”
The second incident, which occurred early Tuesday morning, is now known to have ruptured the pipeline allowing seawater ingress — one report described it as “a gaping hole” — although Saipem on Wednesday morning European time clarified there was no damage to the vessel. Workers were reportedly evacuated from the pipelay vessel Castorone although there were no reported injuries, or worse.
The Woodside spokesperson added that its teams have been working to support Saipem and ensure the wellbeing of all personnel on the vessel undertaking Scarborough trunkline installation, following the unplanned incident on 30 January.
