The Angel Carbon Capture and Storage Joint Venture (Angel CCS JV), of which Woodside Energy Ltd (Woodside) is the Operator, has identified the opportunity for a carbon capture and storage (CCS) project in the North-West region of Western Australia (WA). The proposed Angel CCS Project would comprise the development of a carbon dioxide (CO2) gathering system for the collection of CO2 via new pipelines from emitters on shore or through import via ships. Collected CO2 would be transported to a central facility prior to being transported offshore via subsea pipeline and injected into the subsea geological formation.

To support the Angel CCS Project, Woodside, under the Offshore Petroleum and Greenhouse Gas Storage (Environment) Regulations 2023 (Cth), proposes to conduct geophysical and geotechnical surveys within the Operational Area. Data from the surveys is intended to inform the design for the pipeline and umbilical routes, subsea structure foundation locations and planning for mobile offshore drilling unit anchoring or jack-up rig placements. The surveys will also support baseline studies to provide data on existing infrastructure and potential future activities.

The Operational Area is located on the Northwest shelf, and extends from the Commonwealth/State waters boundary, out to the Angel Field located in GHG Assessment Permit G-10-AP. A narrow survey corridor also extends west out from the Angel Field to petroleum title WA-1-L. The Operational Area includes the Offshore Borrow Ground. Water depths in the Operational Area range from approx. 35 m at the Commonwealth/State waters boundary to 135 m in the Angel Field. The Operational Area is located 7.5 km from the nearest shoreline (Legendre Island) and between 35 km and 140 km to Dampier on mainland WA.

Several types of survey vessels will be required to complete the activities. A multi-purpose project vessel will be used to conduct the geophysical surveys, ROV operations and light geotechnical operations. Geotechnical drilling will be performed from a supply vessel using a seafloor drilling unit. Uncrewed surface vessels are controlled from a remote operations centre and are likely to replace conventional vessels for numerous survey tasks over the life of the EP.

Geophysical and geotechnical surveys within the Operational Area may use the following survey equipment:
• Multibeam echo sounder
• Side scan sonar
• Magnetometers
• Sub-bottom profiler (SBP) (boomer, sparker, pinger, chirp and parametric SBP)
• Refraction SBP (including mini airgun)
• Box cores and grab samples
• Piston cores, gravity cores, vibrocores
• Drilling core holes
• Piezoncone penetrometer testing
• Other survey equipment including for example: water samples, sound velocity sensors multi-parameter conductivity-temperature-depth profilers, underwater cameras, remotely operated vehicles and autonomous underwater vehicles.

The surveys program is anticipate to commence from approximately Q1 2025 or as soon as approvals are in place. Activities may be completed over several multi-week campaigns split over the five-year period of this EP and could consist of approximately 100 days of survey activities in total. The vessels involved will be operating 24 hours a day. Timing and duration may be subject to change due to project vessel availability, unforeseen circumstances and weather.