Woodside plans to undertake plug and abandonment activities for four subsea wells within the Minerva field in production licence VIC/L22. The plug and abandonment activities will occur within Commonwealth waters approximately 8 km south of the town of Port Campbell, Victoria. The plug and abandonment activities are part of the decommissioning of the Minerva gas field. Plug and abandonment permanently seals the wells to prevent release of hydrocarbons to the environment.

The Minerva-1 exploration well and Minerva-2A appraisal well were drilled in 1993 and subsequently suspended. The Minerva-3 and Minerva-4 production wells were drilled in 2002 and produced gas via a subsea pipeline to the onshore Minerva gas plant. Production ceased from Minerva-3 and Minerva-4 in 2019, after which the production wells were shut in and isolated from the subsea pipeline.
Plug and abandonment of the wells will be done using a moored semi-submersible mobile offshore drilling unit (MODU), supported by vessels. The MODU will enter the operational area to undertake plug and abandonment activities, and be removed from the operational area once activities are complete. Vessels may undertake preparatory activities, such as pre-laying of moorings and preparation of subsea infrastructure, in addition to supporting the MODU. The subsea Christmas trees (a structure containing valves etc. to control the well) will be removed from the production wells. Wellheads will be cut and removed below the mudline for all four wells.

The plug and abandonment activities (including preparation activities) are expected to require between 44 and 160 days to complete, subject to weather, vessel and MODU availability, or other unforeseen events. Plug and abandonment activities may occur 24-hours per day.