Woodside Energy has been served by Bumi Armada Berhad with a US$283.5 million legal claim, after the Australian company terminated a floating production storage and offloading (FPSO) charter contract for operations offshore northwestern Australia.
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The Armada Claire, from Bumi. |
Bumi's actions have reached the Supreme Court of Western Australia, one month after Woodside subsidiary Woodside Energy Julimar sent Bumi's wholly owned subsidiary, Armada Balnaves (ABPL), a termination notice for the Armada Claire FPSO charter contract.
Bumi is seeking damages in the sum of $276 million, in which the company says it is entitled to had the contract been terminated without breach, plus any additional damages as a consequence to the contract abandonment.
In addition, the company is seeking $7.7 million for work that had been done and materials supplied for the contract.
“Bumi Armada is of the view that there are reasonable grounds to expect a favorable outcome in respect of ABPL’s primary claim against Woodside on the repudiation of the contract,” the company said.
Woodside sent its cancelation notice on 4 March for the FPSO that has been operating in the Balnaves field, off northwestern Australia since delivering first oil in August 2014.
Balnaves, located approximately 180km northwest of Karratha in production license WA-49-L, consists of four subsea wells: two horizontal production wells, one horizontal water injector, and one gas injector, that are tiebacks to the Armada Claire.
In 2014, the field produced some 2 MMbbl. Woodside has estimated the economic ultimate recovery at Balnaves to be 6.7 MMbbl at 1P and 9.8 MMbbl at 2P.
The RM1.46 billion ($390 million today) contract to supply and operate the Armada Claire was signed with Apache in September 2011 for an initial four-year fixed term time charter with an option of a further four-year extension.
Last year, Woodside acquired Houston-based Apache’s interest in the Balnaves project, in addition to Wheatstone, and Kitimat in a $2.75 billion deal.
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