Titles Administrator varies route of WA-9-PL pipeline licence on North West Shelf

Nicole Lynette Filbay, the Delegate of the National Offshore Petroleum Titles Administrator, acting on behalf of the Commonwealth–Western Australia Offshore Petroleum Joint Authority, has varied Pipeline Licence WA-9-PL, redrawing the pipeline’s route and replacing in full its design, stress and operating conditions. The variation is made under sections 226, 264 and 708 of the Offshore Petroleum and Greenhouse Gas Storage Act 2006 and takes effect on the day the notice is published in the Commonwealth of Australia Gazette, on 2 November 2026, under official reference C2026G00712.

The licence being varied is dated 29 October 2001, with the operative text of several clauses still drawn from the licence instrument dated 29 October 2009 and a previous variation dated 23 March 2010. Its title describes the instrument as the Echo/Yodel licence, registered under the identifier NEATS WKWKN5. The licence covers a pipeline for the conveyance of petroleum, described as a liquids-rich gas-condensate three-phase wellstream, from the Yodel field area towards the GWA platform, approximately 140 to 150 kilometres north-west of Dampier in Western Australia.

The registered titleholders of WA-9-PL are:

• Woodside Energy (North West Shelf) Pty Ltd (ACN 004 514 489)
• Chevron Australia Pty Ltd (ACN 086 197 757)
• Woodside Energy Ltd (ACN 005 482 986)
• Shell Australia Pty Ltd (ACN 009 663 576)
• BP Developments Australia Pty. Ltd. (ACN 081 102 856)
• Japan Australia LNG (MIMI) Pty. Ltd. (ACN 006 303 180)

Route cut back to the GWA platform

Clause 4 of the variation deletes the route description formerly on page 3 of the licence and replaces it with a much shorter alignment. The pipeline now runs from the plug at the GWA subsea isolation valve assembly, at or about 387813.74mE and 7 826 755.54mN, up to and including the barred tee of the production header on the GWA platform. The coordinates are referenced to the Geodetic Reference System 1980, Geocentric Datum Australia 1994, Universal Transverse Mercator projection, zone 50, central meridian 117 degrees east.

The former route began at a blind flange adjacent to the Yodel-4 well, some 23 kilometres west-south-west of GWA, and ran to the same production header. Under the new design parameters, the entire 22.9-kilometre subsea pipeline is removed, leaving infrastructure from the GWA subsea isolation valve to the riser emergency shutdown valve of approximately 0.3 kilometres. Annexure “A” is deleted and replaced with the map at Attachment A.

New design, stress and pressure limits

Clause 6 deletes all conditions stated in the 2009 instrument and the March 2010 variation and substitutes a new set. The pipeline must be designed, constructed, tested and operated in accordance with DNV OS F101, supplemented by DNV CN30.5 on environmental conditions and loads, DNV DG14 on free spanning pipelines, DNV RP B401 on cathodic protection design and DNV RP E305 on on-bottom stability. The principal limits are:

• Hoop stress limited to 72 per cent of specified minimum yield strength (SMYS).
• Combined stress limited to 90 per cent SMYS for long-term exposure.
• Combined stress limited to 90 per cent SMYS with a 0.5 per cent strain limit for occasional exposure.
• Pressure strength test limited to the equivalent of 90 per cent SMYS, or 1.25 times 72 per cent SMYS, at the highest elevation in any test section.
• Design pressure and maximum allowable operating pressure both 23.5 MPa; field test pressure 29.4 MPa.
• Design temperatures of 0°C minimum and 60°C maximum; outside diameter 323.9 millimetres; wall thickness 17.5 millimetres in riser, tie-in spools and subsea isolation valve piping; duplex stainless steel to ASTM A790 and ASTM A928; minimum yield strength 448 MPa at 20°C; ANSI 1500# fittings; zero corrosion allowance.

The pipeline system comprises the GWA subsea isolation valve assembly, the tie-in spool, the riser and the topsides riser piping, with four 12-inch valves: a hydraulically actuated ball valve at the base of the riser, a pneumatically actuated ball valve at its top, and two manual ball valves in a double block and bleed assembly for a temporary pig launcher and receiver.

Operating obligations unchanged in substance

The remaining conditions carry over the licence’s compliance architecture. Corrosion coating, welding and stabilisation tests must be submitted to the Director for approval, the pipeline cannot operate until pressure tested, and integrity reports are due within 60 days of completing a review. Cathodic protection surveys are required at baseline, after the first and second years of operation, and thereafter at intervals not exceeding two years; external surveys follow storms exceeding the 50-year return period; and wall thickness reviews fall due within two years of operation and at intervals of no more than five years. A construction Safety Case and an operating Safety Case acceptable to the Director must both be in place. Woodside Energy Ltd remains the operating company unless another operator is appointed and approved.

The variation matters beyond the six titleholders because it formally retires almost the whole of a trunkline that once linked the Yodel field to GWA, converting the licence into a short, plugged tie-in at the platform while retaining full integrity, safety-case and reporting duties over the remnant. Operators and contractors working the North West Shelf now have a gazetted, authoritative statement of the pipeline’s design envelope and its 23.5 MPa operating ceiling.

Source: Commonwealth of Australia Gazette, Government Notices, 2 November 2026, p. 1 (official reference: C2026G00712).