Italian contractor Saipem on Monday confirmed that early this morning an incident occurred on its Castorone pipelay vessel offshore Australia during normal pipelaying operations at Woodside Energy’s Scarborough gas project.

There were no fatalities or injuries reported to personnel although there was localised damage to the trunkline, which will be remediated, said Saipem. The Castorone vessel did not sustain any major damage.

“The health and safety of our personnel, of the environment and our assets is a top priority for Saipem,” added the Milan-headquartered company.

Saipem’s workscope involves the coating, transportation and installation of the Scarborough trunkline at a maximum water depth of 1400 metres, including the fabrication and installation of the line structures and of the pipeline end termination in a 950-metre water depth.

Scarborough will be exploited through new offshore facilities connected by an approximately 430-kilometre export trunkline with a 36-inch and 32-inch diameter trunkline to a second liquefaction train (Pluto Train 2) at the existing Pluto LNG onshore facility in Western Australia.

Most of the offshore work is being performed by the pipelay vessel Castorone under a contract that Woodside awarded in early 2022.