Esso Australia signs VALARIS 107 contract to maintain decommissioning momentum

MELBOURNE, Australia – Esso Australia Pty Ltd (‘Esso Australia’, a subsidiary of ExxonMobil Australia Pty Ltd and operator of the Gippsland Basin Joint Venture) announced today that they have contracted a heavy-duty modern jack-up rig, the VALARIS 107, to undertake decommissioning activities across their offshore operations from Q4 of 2024.

“The VALARIS 107 is critical to Esso Australia’s overall decommissioning strategy in the Bass Strait, and we’re very pleased to add the jack-up rig to our fleet of offshore assets,” said ExxonMobil Australia Chair, Dylan Pugh.

“We’ve now completed almost $1 billion of early decommissioning works across our offshore operations over the last five years, and the VALARIS 107 will play a pivotal role in the safe plug and abandonment of a number of our wells,” Pugh continued.

The VALARIS 107 will be put to task completing the plug and abandonment of 26 wells across three platforms; Bream B, Perch, Dolphin and five subsea locations; Mulloway, Whiptail, Marlin-1, East Pilchard-1, Halibut-1.

Esso Australia has now completed the plug and abandonment of 88 wells offshore using two platform-based rigs, as well as a Multi-Purpose Support Vessel and has a light well intervention vessel set to arrive later this year. Three subsea facilities, Seahorse, Blackback and Tarwhine, have now successfully been removed, plug and abandonment has been completed on Whiting, and significant well decommissioning activities have progressed on Kingfish B, Fortescue and Mackerel.