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Liz Westcott, Woodside’s executive VP and COO of Australia, announced the delivery ceremony in a social media post on Friday.
The ceremony took place at CIMC’s Raffles yard in Yantai, China.
Westcott said Woodside was joined by its joint venture partners Jera Australia and LNG Japan, and contracting partner McDermott to celebrate the upcoming sailaway of the project’s FPU before it heads to Australia.
“From that first cut of steel through to the highly complex floatover (and everything in between), everyone has played their part to bring this facility to life with safety and quality control as a priority,” she said.
In 2022, Woodside contracted McDermott to build the FPU.
McDermott floated out the unit off the coast of Dalian, China, in May this year.
The US firm designed, fabricated, integrated, transported, and installed the approximately 30,000-metric-ton topside and 37,000-metric-ton hull structure, making it the largest floating production facility the company has ever designed and built.
McDermott also claims it is one of the largest semi-submersible production platforms built in offshore history.
Topsides fabrication was completed at McDermott’s joint venture yard, Qingdao McDermott Wuchuan (QMW), in Qingdao, China, while the hull was constructed by Cosco in its Qidong shipyard, also in China.
Following the floatover, the FPU arrived at CIMC’s Raffles yard in Yantai, China, for final integration works.
From there, it is expected to soon sail away to Western Australia, where it will be moored at the Scarborough gas field approximately 375 kilometers offshore from the Burrup Peninsula.
First LNG cargo in 2026
In November 2021, Woodside took a final investment decision on the Scarborough and Pluto LNG Train 2 developments.
Last year, Woodside revised the total project cost estimate to $12.5 billion ($8.2 billion Woodside share), a 4 percent increase from the previous cost estimate at FID of $12 billion.
Woodside’s Scarborough project recently cleared the final legal hurdle following a ruling by Australia’s Federal Court.
The company expects to ship the first cargo from its Scarborough and the second Pluto LNG train project in the second half of 2026.
The project was 86 percent complete as at June 30 2025, excluding Pluto Train 1 modifications.
The field is located some 375 kilometres off the coast of north-west Australia in the Carnarvon Basin.
Following arrival at the field, the FPU will be connected by a 433 km trunkline to a second LNG processing train at the Pluto LNG facility.
Pluto Train 2 will process about five million tonnes per annum (mtpa) of Scarborough gas, and with some modifications to the existing Pluto train, up to three mtpa will be processed there.