Denmark’s Svitzer, a unit of Maersk, said it has secured a contract to provide towage and pilot transfer services at Woodside’s LNG export operations in the Australian port of Dampier, starting from the end of 2023.
Svitzer said in a statement the contract includes a duration of 10 years but its Australian unit said the contract would last for 12 years.
The world’s largest tugboat operator would provide five modern 80-ton bollard pull tugboats to service the critical towage needs for the shipping of export LNG cargoes, it said.
In addition, it will also provide one new pilot transfer vessel for pilot transfer services to support Woodside and its joint venture operations.
“Svitzer looks forward to collaborating with Woodside to further reduce emissions from its tug operations by incorporating the latest proven new technologies over the term of the contract,” said Nicolaj Noes, managing director for Svitzer Australia.
The company did not provide any additional information regarding the contract.
Woodside is the operator of both the Pluto LNG terminal and the Karratha gas plant on Western Australia’s Burrup Peninsula, where the Dampier port is.
The Karratha gas plant has five LNG trains with a capacity of 16.9 million tonnes per year, while Pluto LNG has a single 4.9 mtpa train but it will get another unit as well.
In November last year, Woodside and its partners took a final investment decision on the Scarborough and Pluto LNG Train 2 developments worth about $12 billion.
Pluto Train 2 will process gas from the Scarborough offshore gas resource and have a capacity of about 5 mtpa.