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The magazine for Woodside people | Q2 2014

trunkline

2 trunkline | Q2 2014

Building up the Woodside family 4-5

A new chapter 6

Xena ticks off milestones 7

GWF-1 lays groundwork for success 8-9

Thinking well ahead 10-11

Shutdown success 12-13

Nurturing young talent 14

One path to excellence 15

EditorKellie Bombardieri t: +61 8 9348 6743

JournalistMark IrvingT: +61 8 9348 6293

AdministratorNatalie Brownt: +61 8 9348 5728

PhotographyAaron BunchRoss Swanborough

DesignSilverback Creative

PrintingQuality Press

Trunkline is published four times a year by Woodside Energy Ltd. Back issues of Trunkline are available for viewing on the Woodside website and intranet.

Factoring in safety support 16-17

Sound approach to Ireland entry 18-19

Great Scott Reef 20-21

A day in the life of a gas forecasting

team manager 22-23

On the cover

Pioneering spirit: Carolyn Sadler, the daughter of Rees Withers, and John Donaldson, the son of Geoff Donaldson, meet up in Melbourne to recall how their fathers, who co-founded Woodside, worked so hard to set the scene for the company’s success.Picture: Warren Teidgen

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10

12

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Maintaining an advantage 24

Balancing the numbers 25

Formula for school success 26

Teaming up for fun and games 27

Solid progress on RAP goals 28-29

Sharing in the celebration 30

Welcome to the club 31

Recognition for volunteers 32

Flying the flag for Freo 33

Exercising community spirit 34

Random Discoveries 35-38

Final Frame 39

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Trunkline is printed on New Life Recycled coated paper, which is sourced from a sustainably managed forest and uses manufacturing processes of the highest environmental standards. Trunkline is printed by a Level 2 Environmental Accredited printer. The magazine is 100% recyclable.

inour lives

theenergy

Q2 at Woodside was one of steady, determined effort; the sort of effort that our co-founders Rees Withers and Geoff Donaldson knew well. Carolyn Sadler, Rees’ daughter, and John Donaldson, Geoff’s son, met with up with Trunkline to talk about their fathers’ vision and focus. They recalled that their dads knew where they wanted to take the company, enjoyed sharing that journey with the people who worked with them and would be proud at what has been achieved in Woodside’s 60 years of existence so far. You can read of more their thoughts in the following pages.

You can also read about how hard current Woodsiders are working to build on the legacy that our co-founders have left us. There has been progress on a range of business activities, all with an emphasis on improving efficiency and effectiveness. There has been reinforcement of our strategy and how it sets the scene for our next phase of growth – a phase in which we aim to become global leader in upstream oil and gas. As we said earlier, there has been the sort of steady, determined effort that can take a well-focused team far.


Woodside has been a part of John Donaldson and Carolyn Sadler’s respective families for as long as either of them can remember.

It was their fathers who formed the company and their fathers who nurtured it as it took its earliest steps.

John is the oldest of Geoff Donaldson’s three sons and Carolyn is one of Rees Withers’ two daughters.

Geoff, a stockbroker, and Rees, an accountant, listed Woodside on the stock exchange in 1954, a time when oil fever had gripped the nation.

They put their heart and soul into making the company, which was then little more than an ambitious explorer, a success.

Woodside familyAs John says: “From that early age, in the mid-50s, we realised we had another member of the family and that was Woodside, and it was treated like a member of the family and still is today.

“We regard Woodside as family and I think that’s what dad would have liked to see it as.”

Carolyn recalls school holidays spent in the Gippsland region, where there would be drillers at work on the search for oil. She likened it to a treasure hunt.

“It was a challenge,” she says. “It was a challenge to look for oil. It was a challenge to make a big company.

“I thought it was all a big adventure. It was awesome.”

She recalled setting up the army huts for the drillers to work out of, even down to buying the cutlery with which they would eat their meals.

John talked of watching the roughnecks at work then heading out for a bit of fishing down at Ninety Mile Beach.

Success did not come quickly or easily but Carolyn and John say that did not deter their fathers.

They were clear in their vision and unwavering in their approach.

They relished their roles in building up a company that was proudly Australian and that offered opportunities for a growing workforce.

Building up the

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Dynamic duo: (Left) Geoff Donaldson and Rees Withers founded Woodside 60 years ago. Carolyn Sadler, Rees’ daughter, and John Donaldson, Geoff’s son, says their fathers were clear in their vision and unwavering in their approach.

When their attention turned to acreage in the North West Shelf, they made the discoveries that set Woodside on the path to becoming Australia’s largest independent oil and gas company.

Carolyn says it was a source of great pride when her father’s efforts were recognised with the Reg Sprigg Medal for outstanding service from the Australian Petroleum Production and Exploration Association (APPEA).

John says Geoff, who served as chairman of the company from 1956 to 1984, regarded the day Woodside achieved first gas as his most satisfying moment.

Both attributed their parents’ success to a love of what they did and a will to do it well, with and for the people who joined in their journey.

They each had a strong sense of team and enjoyed the feeling of shared success. They were good sportsmen who liked to win but never at all costs. They valued honesty, integrity, hard work and education.

And they were absolutely determined to succeed.

“But it wasn’t just them,” says John. “It was the determination of a lot of people.

“Workers conveyed on to other workers and that’s where you get the feeling, that’s where you get the continuity of it.

“One man or two men can’t do that. It has to come up through the Woodside family.

“You people, you young workers of today, you will nurture a new set of workers of the next generation and that’s the way a company, a good company, should work.”

Carolyn and John say their fathers would be pleased and humbled by what the company has achieved in its first 60 years.

“They knew where they were going. Rees saw what he saw and Dad saw

what he saw and the two of them combined extremely well,” says John.

“They both probably fulfilled their dream and left a good legacy for the rest of Australia.”

Woodside’s efforts to build on that legacy and position itself as a global leader in upstream oil and gas would be very satisfying to their respective fathers, say Carolyn and John.

They say that working hard at getting better at what you do and building on your success, never resting on your laurels, were attributes that were important to them.

They encouraged current Woodsiders to support one another in an aligned approach to making the company the best it can be.

“You’re employed by a wonderful company and as long as those who are employed there instil that on the new employees coming on, I think Woodside will continue to progress.”


In mid-June, Woodside announced that it had entered an agreement to buy-back 78.3 million of our company’s shares from Shell at a price of US $2680 million.

Shell also committed to selling an equal amount of shares in Woodside via an underwritten sell-down to institutional investors.

Together, these transactions will reduce Shell’s shareholding in our company to a maximum of 4.5%.

Together, they will bring to a close almost three decades of Shell holding a significant equity interest in Woodside and open a new chapter for our company.

“Woodside has benefited from its long and productive relationship with Shell,” says our chief executive officer Peter Coleman.

A new chapter“However, with Woodside operating entirely independently in recent years, Shell had made public its long-term intention to reduce its shareholding in our company.

“This announcement allows that to happen in an orderly manner that benefits both parties.”

The buy-back is subject to shareholder approval at a general meeting to be held on Friday, 1 August, at the Perth Convention and Exhibition Centre at 10am.

It has been deemed fair and reasonable to all non-Shell shareholders by the Independent Expert, Grant Samuel & Associates.

Our chief financial officer Lawrie Tremaine says the combined transaction creates value for our shareholders by enhancing key financial metrics such as earnings per share.

It also allows us to optimise Woodside’s near-term capital structure, while maintaining our capacity to continue to develop existing projects and make additional investments in new growth opportunities.

Lawrie praised those members of his team who have worked with such care and diligence on the proposed buy-back.

He says Woodside worked in cooperation with Shell to ensure an orderly disposal of their shares, minimise any disruption to trading and deliver a good outcome for all shareholders.

Peter says that Shell exiting its major shareholding in Woodside will not end the close working relationship between the two companies

“This relationship is a fruitful one that spans many parts of our business, and it is a relationship that will continue into the future,” he says.

Team effort: Chief financial officer Lawrie Tremaine (standing, left) has praised the care and diligence show by those who have worked on the proposed buy-back, including (from left) Shaun Tubic, Tanya Ellis, Christian Liberatore, Wojciech Grzech, Warren Baillie and Anthea McKinnell.

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The Xena Project recently passed two important milestones as it continued making good progress on its path towards being tied into the Pluto LNG subsea pipelines next year.

Contracts were awarded for both the fabrication and the installation of the subsea infrastructure needed to develop the Xena field as an extension of the Pluto LNG Foundation project.

Perth-company Westralian Engineering has been awarded the subcontract by FMC Technologies to manufacture the Mid-Line Connection Structures (MLCS) for the project. The MLCS each house an isolation valve, which the team will open to flow gas through the Pluto A Platform to the onshore Pluto LNG Plant.

Consideration had been given to international fabrication companies during the subcontract selection process.

Xena’s project manager Tony Ryan says the MLCS for Xena were a specific design and it was highly desirable that FMC Technologies chose a local subcontractor.

“There was a strong desire from the project team to have the MLCS built in our own backyard, so we could attend to the fabrication site on a regular basis and readily deal with any potential issues,” he says.

milestonesTony says the risks were weighed up and it was decided a local build was the best solution.

“A key aspect of using a local contractor was to protect on-time start up of the project,” he says.

“The MLCS can be transported from Perth to Karratha in just days, whereas it would take several weeks if they were to be shipped from overseas.”

Also, awarding local contracts such as Westralian Engineering is building capability for future oil and gas industry work, in particular for upcoming subsea tie-back program hardware for Woodside.

A second contract was awarded to Fugro-TSM to install the MLCS and other subsea hardware.

Fugro has the job of engineering procedures so it can install the hardware in two campaigns next year. Using the crane on the back of Nor Australis, the MLCS will be lowered to the seabed and a flexible flowline will be rolled out from a reel installed on the Nor Australis deck.

The final subsea installation and commissioning campaign will be carried out next year. During this shutdown the team will install the tie-in

piping spools between the MLCS and Pluto flowlines.

Tony says this is the last feat before Xena achieves Ready-For-Start-Up (RFSU) status.

“The tie-in is the last piece of the puzzle before we can open the valve to flow gas from the Xena field to the plant,” he says.

In the meantime the project team is working hard to prepare for the Xena well.

The equipment needed for drilling and completing the well is being delivered and tested, ahead of the Atwood Eagle drill rig arrival expected in Q3 this year.

Senior vice president Pluto LNG Julie Fallon says the achievements are the result of a huge team effort.

“Executing the fabrication and installation contracts, as well as earning the green light for the final safety case and environmental approvals for the drilling campaign, takes us another step closer to achieving RFSU,” Julie says.

“This is the result you get when everyone is involved, when our projects team, our production team and our contractors work together”.

Xena ticks off

Full steam ahead: Xena’s good progress is the result of a huge effort by a team working together.


The pipeline installation scope for the North West Shelf (NWS) Project’s Greater Western Flank Phase 1 (GWF-1) project was successfully completed at the end of April — a challenging piece of work but one that returned an impressive safety record.

GWF-1 project manager Oscar Steinsvaag says in 209,000 offshore work hours, there were no lost time injuries and no medical treatment cases.

This was due in part to an innovative approach taken with contractors on how they manage safety issues.

The $2.5 billion GWF-1 project will develop the Tidepole and Goodwyn GH fields via a subsea tie-back to the existing Goodwyn A (GWA) platform. Eventually, there will be three wells in Tidepole and two in Goodwyn GH. GWF-1 is on track to begin producing in the first half of 2016.

Oscar underlined the importance of GWF-1 to Woodside and the North West Shelf Project.

“Projects like GWF-1 will assist to extend the life of the NWS Project into the future,” Oscar says.

“The successful execution of GWF-1 will further demonstrate Woodside’s ability to deliver complex and challenging projects reinforcing our position as a partner of choice.”

The GWF-1 pipeline is the first rigid pipeline Woodside has installed since the 2009 Pluto pipelay.

That project provided many valuable lessons which the subsea and pipelines team was able to effectively apply to the GWF-1 pipelay campaign.

Rolf Pedersen, pipeline team lead GWF-1, says the pipeline wasn’t big, long (14.4km of 16inch pipe) or deep.

However, because its construction comprised pipe with stainless steel cladding, plus the fact it included the latest Woodside design standards, it was technically advanced.

“This provided plenty of challenges,” says Rolf.

“We needed to be confident about preventing internal corrosion, inspecting welds accurately and controlling pipeline movement in operation.”

Following the pipelay installation, the project is now more than two-thirds complete.

However, Oscar says big challenges remain, not least completion of the drilling and the brownfield scope of work on GWA.

But he is confident that given the right approach, they will be met and overcome.

GWF-1 lays groundwork

for success

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“We’ve had a few challenges thrown at us, but I’m confident that the team has the strength to rise above anything that gets thrown at us in the future,” says Oscar.

“There have been times when it’s been difficult to see the light at the end of the tunnel.

“But we knew we were in the right tunnel and we kept on working. With a positive attitude, we were able to overcome the problems, get things done and get back on track again.

“And in the end, the lessons learnt will benefit future projects.”

Oscar cited encouragement from the NWS Business Unit and his team — about 80 directly involved and another 60-70 indirectly — as reasons for the project’s success.

“In a team, you’ll always get a range of experience, talent and education and skills,” Oscar explains.

“When we got our team together, they were all enthusiastic and committed to the job. I was very happy with that.”

The improved safety record of the pipelay campaign is something that Oscar is particularly pleased with.

“We looked at previous projects and saw what lessons we could take from them and then we focused on those lessons,” he says.

“That meant we could achieve a better outcome, which we did.

“Our solid offshore safety performance was a significant improvement from the Pluto pipelay campaign.

“On top of the lessons we were able to apply from previous projects, we also need to credit the diligent work of our contractor Technip, which was strongly supported by Woodside’s management team.”

Oscar explained that pre-project the team identified the “big hitters” that, if managed well, would improve safety performance.

“We came up with five key themes to focus on,” he says.

“These were offshore crew selection

and engagement, firing line injuries and health risks, pipe joint transport and handling accident potential, major accident potential and subsea construction.

“We raised these themes at the tender stage, not after contract award which is normally what happens.

“After contract award, it can sometimes be harder to bring about changes that you know will improve safety. We wanted something tailor-made to what we needed and we needed a contractor that shared our commitment to health and safety.”

“So we took three shortlisted contractors and said, ‘how are you going to manage these five areas? Come back and tell us’.

“We learned quite a bit about the contractors’ capability.

“The effort that we put in up-front has really paid dividends. While there is still some challenging work ahead of us, we have the right foundations and team to get the job done and to do it safely.”

Safety first: The successful installation of almost 15km of pipeline for the GWF-1 project has been accompanied by an improved safety record, says project manager Oscar Steinsvaag, pictured above with senior subsea installation engineer Scott Fell-Smith on his left.


Earlier this year, the Woodside Board reinforced our three-part strategy of maximising core business, leveraging capability and growing our portfolio.

It was a vote of confidence in a plan designed to deliver sustained success. It was a vote of confidence in a plan governed by disciplined decision making.

Vice president strategic planning Stephen Hall says this long-range thinking and rigour are evident in what we choose to do and not do.

Take Browse and Leviathan as examples of the latter.

Our decision not to pursue a Browse development at James Price Point in favour of investigating a floating LNG option and the termination of Woodside’s Memorandum of Understanding on Leviathan after failing to reach a commercially acceptable agreement were underpinned by such rigour.

Steve says these decisions demonstrate strong investment discipline and are in line with our values.

He says Woodside’s strategy remains robust and the company remains well positioned to prosper and grow in a strong and sustainable direction.

“Our strategy sets a clear path to achieve our goals,” Steve says.

“The nature of our business is about taking measured risks.

We recognise that the world is an uncertain place so we need to be flexible. We must continue to learn, adapt and change just as the world changes around us.

“We need to take considered risks and manage the uncertainty.”

In fact, Steve says, uncertainty is good and is something we should embrace.

Why? “Because it is uncertainty that often creates opportunity,” he says.

He accepts that some decisions might bring disappointment in the short term but the aim is to deliver long-term growth.

“For a strategy to work, we must pursue it with discipline,” Steve says.

“We must be realistic, objective and not emotionally attached when assessing each opportunity.”

Consider again the fundamental elements of Woodside’s strategy — maximising the core, leveraging capability and growing our portfolio.

Maximising the core is all about maximising the value from producing assets and developing the resources we have.

Shannon O’Rourke, strategic planning manager, says performance

excellence, production excellence and continuous improvement are all aimed at achieving this. They are all aimed at ensuring we get ever better at what we do.

Leveraging capability?

“The easiest and cheapest way to create a capability is by doing,” says Shannon.

We are creating a floating LNG (FLNG) capability for the company which we can leverage for the future.

“FLNG changes the game for offshore gas developments because it changes the whole cost paradigm and helps address the above-ground risk issues that you typically have with mega projects.”

Shannon says growing this capability puts Woodside is in an advantageous position as it strives to become a global leader in upstream oil and gas.

Likewise, opening an office in Singapore is designed to leverage our marketing capabilities towards trading in LNG — another big plus.

As for growing the portfolio, Woodside is growing both organically and inorganically.

Organic growth includes exploring internationally in places such as Myanmar, Ireland and New Zealand.

“We can expect to see more of this in the near future,” says Steve.

“Organic growth also includes pursuing new LNG-based business development opportunities.

“Inorganic growth means looking for the right opportunities to buy into companies or discovered resources.”

“Our explorers are changing the balance of Woodside’s exploration portfolio to increase margins,” Yousof says.

“We’re shifting the balance towards emerging basins where the petroleum system is proven even though the basin remains underexplored.

We’re also increasingly comfortable with non-operated ventures and are

Thinking well ahead

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being smart about our exposure to large projects”.

Yousof says a robust strategy helps a business stay focused and agile.

“If the business isn’t aligned it is very difficult to execute a strategy,” he says.“

That is why the Compass and strategic planning process are important to the business.

“The Compass articulates three important and strongly related things: who we are, where we’re going and how we’ll get there. It reminds us why we’re here. It is the road map.”

He says the new integrated strategic planning process, implemented this year, streamlines the process of developing a strategy, plan and budget and ensures that one drives the other.

This process is decision based,

activity-centric and designed to maximise alignment and minimise rework.

“The new process was very much a joint effort,” Yousos says.

“The Strategic Planning Network, a virtual team of business managers, executive advisers and strategy managers from across the business have come together to fundamentally improve the way we plan.

“As with any change, we’ve encountered a few wrinkles, but what has been fantastic is the way everyone has worked together to iron them out.

“We’ve had great feedback.

“The new process enabled us to reduce the work required to create a forecast.

“Streamlining that work has enabled people to create better plans and those

better plans have helped us be razor sharp about what we do.

“We’re saving effort and saving money at the same time.”

Steve believes the company’s best days lie ahead of it, with strong alignment from the Board to the shop floor on our strategic direction, supported by robust planning processes and disciplined decision making.

“Woodside recognises that the world is uncertain and changing but we do have the flexibility and capability to respond,” he says.

“We also recognise that it takes the whole company working together with the right attitude and with the right culture to succeed and keep succeeding.

“It is a good position to be in.”

Thinking ahead: Shannon O’Rourke, Yousof Hourani, Stephen Hall, Taryn Simpson and Stephanie Elphick make up the corporate strategy team helping to implement our three-part corporate strategy. Stephen and executive vice president development and growth Greg Roder (left) have held information sessions on the strategy at various forums for staff over the past year.


The Karratha Gas Plant (KGP) LNG Train 3 major shutdown was completed late May with a number of significant improvements successfully implemented to ensure a most successful operation.

In fact, the shutdown finished 52 hours ahead of schedule thanks to some excellent preparatory work and the endeavours of more than 1000 personnel who worked some 140,000 hours during the shutdown.

Olivia Thomas, KGP continuous improvement lead, notes that the LNG2 shutdown last year took longer than expected to complete.

While unseasonal weather conditions played a part in this delay, Olivia says investigations also revealed productivity, quality, planning and commissioning as contributing factors.

So four project teams were established to identify the root issues of the problems and resolve them in time for this year’s LNG3 shutdown.

“Productivity was increased by more than two hours per shift, which is an excellent result,” says Olivia.

“Morale was raised thanks to better supervisor training focused on leadership and quality and because any delays were kept to a minimum, this morale boost was maintained throughout the shutdown.”

For the first time during a shutdown at KGP, heated nitrogen was used.

Shutdown superintendent Shane White says this saved time.

“Last year, during the LNG2 major shutdown, we used the nitrogen membrane unit for the first time which is ideal because you have access to as much nitrogen as you need,” Shane explains.

“This year, we took it one step further and added a boiler to the unit. This meant we had nitrogen at about 60 degrees, which is more effective for purging.”

It also meant a reduction in the operations run-out time of about 24 hours.

Shane says another major improvement was the use of low-pressure heated defrost gas to dry out the mercury drier bed ahead of start-up.

“Dry out has traditionally been completed using pressurised cold feed gas flared during start-up, which can take four to five days on the critical path at the end of a shutdown and leads to additional flaring,” he says.

“So a methodology was developed by engineering, operations and maintenance to use temporary steam to heat defrost gas from one of the online LNG trains.

“As a result, the mercury drier bed was dry on LNG3 start-up, the flared gas total was significantly reduced and we saved time at the end of the shutdown.”

In fact, the new process shaved between three and four days off the critical path shut down plan for LNG3, and flaring was reduced by about 7000 tonnes compared to previous dry outs.

Shutdown success

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The complete dry out also mitigated against future problems associated with residual water freezing out in the LNG system.

Shane says he was also particularly pleased with the overall shutdown safety performance.

“We only had one medical treatment case, although we would prefer to have had none,” he notes.

“This is a great result considering the personnel hours worked.”

And the distances covered.

It has been calculated that during the shutdown, those personnel walked the equivalent distance from Karratha to Perth and back again — five times.

Lessons learnt from the LNG3 shutdown will be used to make further improvements over the next few months and feed into future shutdowns. The shutdown group are making great headway on their continuous improvement journey.

Good result: The May shutdown at the Karratha Gas Plant brought together more than 1000 people who worked together to achieve notable productivity improvements.


When Leon and William Miller first started work at the Karratha Gas Plant (KGP) they were blown away by the sheer size and scale of the operation.

The Broome-based brothers, who recently took part in the major maintenance shutdown of LNG train 3 at KGP, are now almost finished their mechanical apprenticeships at the gas plant.

“When I first saw KGP I was amazed at how big it is and how many people work there,” William says.

Leon was surprised by the number of approvals needed before any work can be undertaken.

“I was pretty confused by the number of permits required for the first few days. But once it was explained to me why they were important it all made sense,” he says.

However, the pair adjusted quickly and have been making the most of their opportunity.

“The support from the team I am working with helped me adapt to the

Nurturing young talentnew environment quickly,” William says. Leon agrees that it didn’t take long to feel at home.

Leon and William started their apprenticeships in Broome and are studying to become mechanical fitters, with William in his fourth year of study and Leon in his third.

“We both grew up in Broome so when Woodside was offering apprenticeships we thought it sounded like a great chance to get a qualification,” William says. “I was studying horticulture at the time but I grew up fixing cars with my Dad and loved the idea of working in a mechanical field.”

The boys gained valuable experience at several Broome businesses, with William spending two and a half years at Broome Airport and younger brother Leon working for mechanics ProMech.

Both boys gained reputations as extremely hard workers, something Woodside’s North West employment and training manager Michael Roe knew would be an asset in Karratha.

“Originally we thought some of our

apprentices would work at James Price Point during the construction phase of the Browse LNG Development,” Michael says. “When this was no longer feasible, we looked for other options and transitioning strong candidates to Karratha seemed like a reasonable step.”

After discussing the idea with William and Leon, who both thought it was an excellent opportunity, Michael began to work out the logistics.

In Karratha, Woodside apprentices are supervised by Apprenticeships Australia so both men were assessed externally by their trainers who agreed they would be a good fit.

William and Leon then spent several months working at the Broome Power Station to gain experience in an environment more like the KGP.“Working at the power station was very different to my previous placements and a really good introduction to a busier work place with lots of employees,” Leon says.

After this, it was decided that William and Leon would spend two weeks in Karratha to see how they adjusted.

After settling in quickly, they gained approval to complete their apprenticeships at the gas plant where they work a two-on/two-off, two-on/four-off roster.

“We are really lucky to have the chance to build our experience in the oil and gas industry,” William says. “Now it is up to us to make it all fall into place.”

Being away from home each shift is a big change, particularly for William who has two young children, but both brothers say they are enjoying their new work and living arrangements.

“It is hard being away from family, but having each other to talk to about our experience is good,” Leon says. William agrees. “We definitely lean on each other and it stops you feeling homesick.

“Hopefully if things go well we will both finish out our apprenticeships in Karratha then who knows what the future holds for us?”

Brothers in arms: William and Leon Miller are enjoying their work in Karratha.

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Engineering. Its influence is obvious and essential at Woodside. We have engineers spread across Perth, Karratha and our offshore assets. We have engineers providing some of the most essential services and solutions to the business.

So in 2013, when a business review found that some of our engineers were not able to work as effectively or efficiently as they could, it was time to take a fresh look at how the team was structured and worked together.

After the completion of the Organisational Effectiveness work review and with the alignment of our executives, the One Engineering project team was formed and began the work to embed a new Engineering function at Woodside. Their guiding philosophy? Formula One Grand Prix. “We found that some of our engineers were held back by unclear accountabilities and role clarity across the teams. This meant that response was delayed and we couldn’t be as proactive as we would have liked,” says Dave Harwood, One Engineering project manager.

One path to excellence

“The Formula One concept is a good example of performance excellence. It’s about being streamlined. It’s about being focused, making the right decisions and learning from the results.

“Everyone in the team has a clear purpose; a defined role that is crucial to the success of the team. It’s amazing what can be achieved when a team has clarity on collective purpose, roles and a commitment to continuous improvement. We want to emulate this in the function.”

In close collaboration with Richard van Lent, senior vice president engineering, and Russell Ward, vice president production technical, detailed accountability mapping highlighted specific improvement opportunities. This ultimately led the team to develop a more efficient organisational and service delivery model and improve some systems, process and standards.

“Engineering services are now integrated across the function and we have some 600 engineers working within three key entities, including the Engineering Centre, the Engineering Delivery team and Production Engineering,” Dave says.

The new model will enable the function to operate more productively: • Theworkenvironmentismore

streamlined.• Processeshavebeensimplified.• Thereisincreasedcollaboration

between teams.• Thefunctioncanmoreefficiently

deploy engineers across the business.

• Maintenancestrategiesarebeingdeveloped to allow more proactive and less reactive work.

• ProductionEngineeringandMaintenance work processes aligned

• Careeropportunitiesaremorereadily available from across the company.

• Wehaveimprovedourfocuson functional excellence and continuous improvement.

“We are already able to better leverage our capabilities across Production, Projects and the Engineering Centre as one engineering organisation, ensuring that our approach is consistent and we drive efficiencies through our planning, scheduling and execution. The project is driven by the desire for our engineers to be the best they can be,” Dave says.

Gearing up: Rudi Smith, Simon Hehir, Dave Harwood and James Lewis are part of the One Engineering project team.


Some call him a gamekeeper turned poacher.

“It’s not quite right,” Martin Anderson says with a smile, “but I know what they’re talking about.”

Martin is a global human factors specialist who celebrated in June his first anniversary at Woodside.

He was headhunted from the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), the UK regulator, where he’s spent the past dozen years as an inspector visiting oil and gas companies on and offshore.

“I encouraged industry to manage people issues in a structured and proactive way, with as much rigour as the technical aspects,” he says.

After visiting many major hazard sites, he is able to share what these companies have done well, and where they could improve how they address human factors.

Human factors?

It’s an area not widely understood, but as Martin explains: “It’s about managing human performance by designing jobs and equipment which are fit for people.

“It’s a huge topic, but it’s basically all about how people interact with other

people, plant and equipment and management systems.

“A lot of energy and attention is spent looking at the equipment and hardware at a facility, while human factors looks at the person: how are we supporting them to do the job to the best of their abilities?”

Martin has two masters degrees, including one in process safety, to complement his first degree in psychology, plus a wealth of industrial experience.

His work both at the HSE and in private practice over the past 20 years or so gave him remarkable access to the innermost working of all sorts of industries, not just oil and gas.

He’s ridden in the cockpit of jet airliners and the cabins of high-speed trains; he’s gone down coal mines and into the control rooms of nuclear power stations.

And he’s helped devise the HSE approach to human factors comprising 10 topics now used worldwide by industry and regulators.

They include such topics as procedures, staffing, communications, organisational culture, fatigue and shiftwork and how to manage human failure.

He produced a website for the HSE addressing these topics, recognised as one of the world’s best resources for human factors in health and safety.

The phrase “human error” or “operator error” is often used to describe why an accident or tragedy has occurred, but a human factors approach requires more explanation.

“These terms are not useful,” Martin says. “Human factors asks: why did they do that? Were they distracted? Did they have a high workload? Is the human-machine interface confusing? Is there a poor safety culture?

“What kind of things set that person up for an error and what can we learn from that?

“Instead of saying after the event ‘why did someone make a mistake?’ why can’t we look at our high-risk activities before an incident and ask: ‘how might someone make a mistake? How could someone fail?’

“When people fail it’s not because they’re stupid, it’s because we’ve set them up the wrong way, for example, with poor equipment design, a high workload or conflicting priorities. We need to set them up for success and support them in performing their work.”

And besides the threat to health and safety, there’s also the cost factor.

Factoring in safety support

17

Human performance issues can cost companies — and the wider community — hundreds of millions of dollars. So human factors isn’t just about preventing health and safety incidents; it can also help us to improve reliability, reduce downtime and prevent equipment damage.

Martin leads a small team within the health, safety and quality function.

His first task was to undertake a gap analysis and establish the difference between the expectations a regulator would hold and the practices in Woodside.

It was the first step in a five-year plan to improve human factors at Woodside and help the company become a global top quartile performer on health and safety.

So how did we fare?

“I found that for some topics we were more mature than others, and that there were pockets of good practice we need to share around the company,” Martin replies.

This gap analysis led to selecting priority topics, one of which was critical task analysis, which is now an activity under the five-year Health and Safety Roadmap rolled out last year.

The next step is the preparation of a tool kit which is currently being piloted

and which will be applied next year throughout the business.

“We believe the tool kit is one of the ways to help Woodside reach the top quartile because it will help identify where Woodside needs to be more robust,” Martin says.

“We need to know where human performance issues could have the most impact on the business — for safety, health, environment, reliability, quality and so on. We can then optimise the factors that influence the behaviours and decisions that people make.”

Martin’s work sits within one of the four strategic imperatives in the Health and Safety Roadmap, which have been finessed in line with the productivity challenge.

They now comprise the following four key areas: simplification of processes and systems, embedding process safety, integrating human factors and contractor engagement.

Under each strategic imperative there have been some real wins to date.

Contractor engagement was the subject of a CEO forum last November when all of Woodside’s contractors were assembled to report on how they found dealing with Woodside.

“The forum gave us great insights on what we need to focus on to reach our goal of being partner of choice and developing long-term partnerships with our contractors,” says James Foo, health and safety general manager operations.

Collectively, the team is focused on achieving the goal of global top-quartile.

“A core element of our company’s values is a relentless focus on health and safety,” says Mike McKenna, health and safety manager exploration.

Rory O’Connor, senior health manager and acting vice president, agrees.

“We’re on track to achieve top quartile performance with a 25% reduction in reportable injuries last year,” he notes.

It’s indicative of the level of improvement that can be achieved when Woodside and its contractors pull together, fully focused on the same goal.

“It is human factors which gives us context and a framework to understand how our contribution affects performance and also tools that we can use to improve it,” Rory notes.

“But everyone at Woodside has responsibility for health and safety.”

The human factor: Martin Anderson (left and centre), recruited from the UK health and safety regulator, shares his extensive knowledge on managing human performance with the health and safety leadership team (right).


An investigation into whales off Ireland is the focus of Woodside’s first major environmental research project in Europe.

The project was launched in May with the deployment of acoustic loggers at three locations off the west coast of Ireland. These noise loggers record all ocean noises, including the sounds whales

make when they sing and the high frequency sounds dolphins or toothed whales use to “echolocate” their prey.

“There’s a belief that there’s not enough known about cetaceans — especially whales — off the Irish coastline and the NGOs (non-government organisations) and the Irish Government are becoming more

and more interested in this,” says Gareth Parry, Woodside’s new Ireland country manager.

Woodside’s interest, of course, stems from its farm-in last year to four Licensing Options in the Porcupine basin. These options, lying 100-150kms off Ireland’s west coast, have subsequently been converted to Frontier Exploration Licences in each of which Woodside holds a majority stake.

“It is recognised by the Ireland Joint Venture participants that we are responsible for understanding biological sensitivities with respect to future exploration activities,” says Gareth.

“So the JVPs have decided to fund a research program that deploys noise loggers in three different locations to help us understand what whales are where and when.”

“It’s nice to know, with this program, that Irish whales now have a microphone and a very attentive audience.”

The aim of the research project is to determine the distribution and abundance of individual whale species between May and September.

Woodside has partnered with the Irish Marine Institute and Curtin University’s Centre for Marine Science and Technology (CMST), which designed the loggers and with which the company has enjoyed a 15-year partnership. The Galway-Mayo Institute of Technology is providing the marine mammal and also bird observers.

“We’re leveraging our existing partnerships developed in Australia and forming new international ones,” says Woodside’s chief environmental scientist Luke Smith, adding that the research project includes funding for a Master of Science student in Ireland to analyse the acoustics recorded.

These loggers will record whale vocalisations in the three different locations with the furthermost logger deployed approximately 400 km west of Ireland.

to Ireland entrySound approach

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The loggers have a wide hearing range (up to 150km) so the three moorings will give researchers an extensive knowledge of cetacean diversity and abundance in Irish offshore waters.

Each of three moorings will have one noise logger optimised for low frequencies (to record whales singing and communicating so the species can be identified) and one optimised for high frequencies (to record the whale population using echo location).

“With the acoustic loggers you can determine what species of whale is making the sounds,” says Luke.

“And the low frequency loggers can pick up the likes of the humpback whale which has quite a complex song to communicate with each other. You can go through a process to identify which species of whale is making that noise.

Luke says Woodside’s health and safety, legal, contracts, and marine teams provided invaluable support to

manage and assess risk and all played an important role in the successful deployment of the loggers.

“There was a great deal of input and support from across Woodside to ensure we were ready to roll out this

ground-breaking study,” he says.

The loggers were successfully deployed mid-May from the State research vessel Celtic Voyager.

First results are expected late this year.

Voyage of discovery: Noise loggers have been deployed to help Woodside study whales off Ireland’s west coast. Gareth Parry (below, second from left) checks out an acoustic logger on board one of the vessels. Photo courtesy of Joanne O’Brian (GMIT).


A team of Woodsiders took to the waters off the Kimberley coast in March, but they weren’t looking for oil or gas.

Instead, they pointed their boat to Scott Reef on the edge of Australia’s continental shelf — some 270km from the coast and, more significantly for Woodside, above part of the Torosa gas and condensate field.

The aim of the expedition was twofold: to provide the Browse development team and Browse Joint Venture (JV) partners with a close-up look at the wonders of Scott Reef; and to give those charged with ensuring this marvellous environment is appropriately managed an opportunity to “ground truth” the area to support the development of key environmental management plans.

There were other benefits, too.

Daniel Bathe, vice president Browse development, reports that the trip was a great chance for team building.

“I benefitted hugely from being able to talk with people outside the work environment and getting to know them as human beings, not simply work colleagues,” Daniel says.

There were 21 people on the expedition — mainly Woodsiders but also representatives of Browse JV partners as well as the Australian Marine Oil Spill Centre (AMOSC).

This was the result of a conscious strategy to engage our partners more fully with the project — or, as Daniel puts is, “taking the joint venture partners on the journey”.

They flew to Broome then travelled by catamaran to Scott Reef, arriving 27 hours later and just in time for a spectacular sunset.

On the way, chief environmental scientist Luke Smith gave two presentations on Scott Reef’s natural history and the development history of Browse.

MIMI bought into the Browse JV in 2012. MIMI representative Pat Boss says the trip was an invaluable opportunity to get a close-up look of Scott Reef.

“To see first-hand the marine life and snorkel among its coral was fantastic,” Pat says.

BP representative John Wallace says one of the striking contrasts for him was the tranquillity of Sandy Islet on

a clear almost full moon lit night and the deafening sound of the sea birds perched on the remains of the weather station waiting for the turtle hatchings to start their hazard-filled journey out to the open ocean.

Angus Argyle, Shell interface manager, says the beauty of the Scott Reef and its surrounds stressed the imperative of protecting the environment.

“All the joint venture parties are determined to achieve this with minimal environmental impact, and this trip gave us a good idea of what was at stake,” Angus says.

The Browse JV already has invested millions of dollars over the past two decades creating a world-class data base on the biodiversity and functioning of Scott Reef.

Now, it’s investing time and money in developing plans to protect the reef and ecologically important areas like Sandy Islet.

The expedition was part of that exhaustive environmental planning.

The vessel was the 38m-long Reef Prince and it moored near Scott Reef’s Sandy Islet on its first night at the reef.

Great Scott Reef

Marine scene: Woodsiders take to the waters off the Kimberley coast to see first-hand the wonderful marine life of Scott Reef and (below) ecologically important areas like Sandy Islet, with the remains of a disused weather monitoring station in the background.

21

The next morning its passengers snorkelled among the magnificent coral and the thousands of fish that feed off them.

“It started off amazing, and then it got better,” reports Ben Malseed, environmental adviser.

Nick Jones, the Browse environment manager, agrees.

“Scott Reef leaves the Great Barrier Reef way behind,” he says.

The team’s photographs give some idea of the colour of the corals and the marine life they observed — fish and turtles, sea cucumbers, sharks . . . and venomous sea snakes.

“They’re a good size snake, too,” adds Nick.

“They’re very friendly, very curious and they’ve got no fear of people.

“It kept people on their toes,” says Ben. “Technically, they’re quite venomous but they don’t usually bite people.”

In the afternoon, the team again disembarked and went onshore.

Sandy Islet is little more than a large sandy mound but it is an important breeding ground for green turtles — a major reason for its environmental and ecological significance.

During the summer, up to 400 females lay their eggs in the sand, and at the end of summer the hatchlings make their way to the water. They brave a gauntlet of crabs to get there and encounter fish and sharks when they do.

At high tide, Sandy Islet is tiny — only about 400m by 50m at its widest point. At low tide, it’s more like 5km by 1km.

This highly variable size is an important consideration for those preparing emergency plans to deal with highly unlikely environmental events.

Ben Malseed and AMOSC consultant Nathan Young took the opportunity to “ground truth” or understand the Sandy Islet geography and test the effectiveness of environmental management plans against it.

“You’re restricted to accessing the islet on mid to high tide,” Ben explains.

Then there’s the extreme heat at certain times of the year. In the summer temperatures in the Kimberley can reach 45 degrees in the shade.

But there’s no shade on the tiny, exposed crop of sand called Sandy Islet, and with the sun reflecting off the sand, it’s that much hotter.

Meanwhile, the Browse team remains focused on continuing work on the Environmental Impact Statement (EIS).

The proposed Browse FLNG Development was referred to the Commonwealth Department of Environment (DOE) late last year and the draft EIS. Which will detail all aspects of the development plan.

This plan will be made available for formal public review.

The final EIS is scheduled for the end of this year and the Minister for Environment’s decision on the development is due next year.


Yvette Manolas joined Woodside 11 years ago as a petroleum engineering graduate after gaining a degree in mechanical engineering and commerce at the University of Western Australia. She joined the usual graduate rotation within the company, however, during her secondment to joint venture partner Shell, Yvette’s career path took an unexpected turn.

She joined Shell’s specialty explosive (well perforating) team and found herself being offered a job giving technical advice and training for Shell’s South East Asian operations. Despite starting from a low knowledge base, Yvette quickly went on to become an expert in the field. This included developing a software program that changed the global perforating industry.

Back at Woodside she took many and varied positions (including skillpool head for Woodside’s subsurface analysts/technical assistants) and today she is manager of the Pluto and North West Shelf gas long-term forecasting team.

“I’ve had to learn a lot and step out of my comfort zone,” Yvette says. “And

when I don’t know the answer, I’m not afraid to say so and ask for help.”

Similarly, she is a firm believer in the power of ideas and one of her management techniques is to hold regular brainstorming sessions with her team.

“No idea should be rejected,” she reasons, “because from one idea other ideas might flow.”

And she quotes Alex Osborne (an American advertising executive sometimes known as the father of brainstorming) who said: “Creative ideas reside in people’s minds but are trapped by fear and rejection. Create a judgement-free environment and you’ll unleash a torrent of creativity.”

Following, Yvette provides some insight into her typical working day.

5.30am: I get up when the alarm goes and start the day by unpacking some boxes. We recently moved house and still haven’t unpacked properly, so early morning is a good time to open some boxes while I have the house to myself. I then make breakfast and lunch for our little boy, Richard, who’s two.

6.30am: My husband, Hamilton Stott, who also works at Woodside, emerges (he was on night duty with Richard) and we get Richard out of bed. We have an interesting discussion about the need for him to wear pants. Negotiating with a two-year-old is not an easy task!

7.30am: I usually cycle to work and the 5km from South Perth to the CBD gives me some exercise before I start the day. But when it’s raining, like today, I might give it a miss and catch the bus.

8am: I start the day by greeting my team, checking the email inbox and reviewing some reports. Ania Mosor is a subsurface analyst who doubles

as the team’s baker and this morning she delivers a delicious lemon cake for us all. No wonder everybody is in such good spirits . . .

I’ve been manager of this team since 2012 and previously was the well team lead on the Okha, which services the Wanaea Cossack Lambert Hermes fields. This role involves ensuring that both the Karratha Gas Plant and Pluto LNG plant are fully optimised from a long-term production perspective — that is, between four and 40 years. The team sits within reservoir management (RESM) and the task requires a combination of long-term forecasting with close collaboration with production, development planning, projects, business units, commercial and the subsurface teams in reservoir management. We get involved in aspects ranging from government negotiations to commercial discussions, strategy reviews and general business — it’s a real mixture which makes it an interesting role.

9am: First of the day’s meetings — with Kevin Still, the NWS business manager, and Chris Clayton, the NWS strategy and governance manager, who is seconded to the BU from RESM. We discuss some special projects the NWS is looking into that could change future production strategies and their commercial implications.

10am: I drop by to see Karen Hibbard to discuss Domgas contracting strategy. Karen started as a graduate in RESM the same time as me, 11 years ago now, and she’s the NWS Domgas commercial adviser.

Then it’s time for a team huddle. We have several of these a week. They’re short — just 15 minutes — and at this one we discuss work planning and improvement ideas. Someone suggests we develop a “tips and tricks” card for our new software forecasting modelling package and make sure everybody in our team gets one. This will aid knowledge sharing.

A day in the life of...

team manager

a gas forecasting

23

The idea gets a tick of approval.

10.30am: I read a Key Decision log draft on GWF-2, a project being led by development planning, then meet to discuss new field opportunities in the NWS with Audrey Leonard , the exploration and new venture manager in RESM. It’s also attended by Bryon Begovich from my team. We discuss a look-up chart to enable quick screening of new opportunities.

Noon: Time for lunch. I usually get a sandwich from somewhere near Woodside Plaza and catch up with friends, or if it is really busy I’ll catch up on some emails.

12.30pm: Steve Hall, vice president strategic planning, and Shannon O’Rourke, the corporate strategy and governance manager, have put together a corporate plan to span the long term planning lifecycle. It incorporates forecasts, costs, budgets and resourcing and it’s integral to the creation of the long-term production forecast for Pluto and NWS, which has just been launched.

1pm: Ian Sylvester, vice president of RESM, gives a briefing to his leadership team on issues that affect staff in RESM. Ian is keen to keep staff informed of developments in the company and often gives such briefings.

1.30pm: Back to my desk, I grab some fruit from the fruit box and spend the next hour or so addressing some issues that have arisen and providing the team with advice. I also find discover there’s some of Ania’s cake left over . . .

Before my next meeting, my boss, Carl Sullivan, drops by to see how things are going. He’s producing asset manager and I give him an update on the preparation for the Long Term Plan and key assumptions that need to be networked across his teams.

3pm: My final meeting of the day is the longest. It’s to discuss field performance of one of Woodside’s gas fields, and its longer term implications. Jack Hennessy, reservoir operations manager in production, is one of the participants. Jack is another who started in RESM as a grad at Woodside with me.

4pm: Back to my desk to tidy up a few issues, plan for tomorrow and say bye to the team before I arrive home around 5.30pm/6pm. Richard tells me about the bigggggg truck he saw today, and luckily he is still wearing his pants. Sounds like he’s had an exciting day.

Variety is the spice: Yvette Manolas has enjoyed a diverse career at Woodside and her present role as manager of the Pluto and North West gas long-term forecasting team also offers plenty of variety, in between relaxing at home (below) with husband Hamilton Stott and their son, Richard.


Woodside’s quest for performance excellence isn’t just about significantly improving the performance of the company. It’s about creating a sustainable legacy; instilling a mindset of continuous improvement so that Woodside can continue to grow and meet its long-range aspirations.

And the business is embracing the concept in many and varied ways, making improvements big and small

Maintaining an advantage

that have a positive impact on our bottom line.

The Production function, our biggest function, is certainly right on board as evidenced by its maintenance excellence campaign.

Maintenance excellence is about efficiently executing the right work, with the maintenance strategy for fin fan coolers at our Karratha Gas Plant (KGP) a case in point.

In 2012 it was found that, in our summer months, the fin fan motors on our LNG trains were failing faster than they could be repaired.

With a total of 926 fin fans installed at KGP, this had a direct impact on our ability to meet our production targets.

Instead of simply increasing stock levels and coming up with a quick fix, the Operations, Maintenance, Engineering, Logistics and Contracting and Procurement teams put their improvement hats on.

By working together, these teams were able to review the life cycle of these air coolers and identify a number of maintenance, engineering and supply chain issues.

Through a structured work plan, these issues were successfully resolved. To date, these teams have helped to reduce work orders and the number of out-of-service fin fans by 50%.

Other improvements have been experienced in:

• sparing levels and repair processes• prioritisation• reporting and trending• six-week planning cycle• motor design, datasheets and

amalgamated common motors

Then there is the benefit of having a dedicated coordinator and the decision to stop the batching of motors.

Senior vice president Production Jeroen Buren says all involved deserve praise.

“The integrated approach taken to resolve KGP’s fin fan issue is an excellent example of teamwork and combining the elements of increased productivity, performance excellence and continuous improvement,” he says.

“It’s great to see teams working towards common goals that significantly improve our reliability as a company.” The teams are expanding their scope and are already looking at how to make further improvements.

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When Amy Moonen took part last year in Woodside’s graduate recruitment, she was dismayed by the low number of women applicants for mechanical and subsea positions.

A little over three per cent of applicants were female.

And though the figure is higher in other engineering disciplines, they are all below Woodside’s gender diversity target in technical disciplines of 30 per cent.

Amy, a NWS production planner who joined as a UWA mechanical engineer graduate almost 10 years ago, acknowledges it’s in nobody’s interest to compromise the recruitment process to meet a gender diversity target.

But she also agrees it’s in Woodside’s best interests to have more female engineers.

So how to boost the applications?

Instead of simply complaining about the imbalance, Amy, decided to address the issue herself.

She wrote to a dozen girls schools in the Perth metropolitan area and asked to talk to students on why they should consider careers in engineering.

She received positive responses from three Perth independent schools and delivered talks to their Year 9 and 10 students.

“I’m not advertising Woodside and I’m not advertising mechanical engineering,” she notes.

“I’m just saying ‘open your eyes to what’s out there for you’.”

She also outlines the different jobs she’s held at Woodside over the past decade, and anecdotes from her work, including almost three years at Pluto during its start up.

“Some teachers have come up to me afterwards and said how much they felt enlightened as to what engineering actually is,” Amy reports.

But some schools failed even to reply to her offer, and some replied that their students were “not interested” in engineering as a career choice.

Amy says such an attitude was disappointing, and she’s redoubling her efforts to make them reconsider.

Perhaps the response didn’t get through to the right person, she reasons, or maybe some schools don’t focus on career choices.

But then when she herself was at school, not one teacher raised engineering as a potential career.

“It was very much a case of my falling into engineering without a real understanding of what it involved,” she says.

Amy also mentors a couple of female university engineering students and has made career presentations at local universities.

“A lot of girls don’t seem to have their eyes open to the fact that there are career paths in engineering and in other sciences that might actually suit them just as well as ones they are

traditionally thinking about,” she says.

So what does she think females can bring to the engineering profession?

Amy says that there is an inherent value of diversity in an organisation. Women may favour a more collaborative approach than their male counterparts and may have good communication skills and affinity for working in teams — “all of which are soft skills required for being a good engineer,” she notes. “You can’t just be good at pulling apart machines.”

Ian Masson, vice president of human resources, says Woodside aspires to be an industry leader in diversity and striving for gender balance in our graduate intake is a key element of our gender diversity strategy.

“We still have much to achieve but Amy’s contribution to the long term objective of attracting more girls to technical subjects greatly contributes to our long-term objectives,” Ian says.

“Amy’s proactive approach in supporting this strategy is a great demonstration of our Compass, Values and Behaviours.”

Balancing the numbers

Role model: Production planner Amy Moonen (left) with Santa Maria College’s head of science Simone Sawiris and Year 10 students Jennifer Tran and Grace MacKellar.


Engaging school children with science can be extremely rewarding, but it’s not without its challenges.

Those challenges can be exacerbated in regional and remote areas where distances from facilities and infrastructure, plus issues like fluctuating school attendances, can create obstacles.

Woodside is working to help overcome these hurdles by partnering with Scitech in the Aboriginal Education Program (AEP).

The AEP is one of the four programs by which the company engages with Scitech, the non-profit organisation located in West Perth, in a partnership now in its 16th year.

Scitech has been engaging students with science across WA since 1988 and it was through its outreach work that it became clear Aboriginal communities had special needs relating to science.

So in 2007, with the help of the Australian Government, the AEP was created with the aim of stimulating the interest and participation of Aboriginal children in science and technology.

Woodside, BHP Billiton Iron Ore,

science successChevron Australia and Rio Tinto are the program’s supporting partners.

Of critical importance was ensuring that the AEP was culturally relevant, and to maximise engagement with the students, the program comprises three components:

• student workshops which are highly interactive and which use a range of communication styles and culturally relevant examples;

• DIY science kits which contain everything a teacher needs for a term of science lessons; and

• professional learning sessions designed for teachers of Aboriginal students to showcase the value of science.

Scitech’s chief executive officer Alan Brien says the partnership with the companies helps to generate community connectivity and cohesiveness.

“Since its inception it has engaged more than 14,000 Aboriginal students and their teachers across 57 remote communities in culturally relevant science education,” Alan says.

“We have been able to demonstrate that, through science, there are different

ways to make connections. Science is not just a school project; it can be seen in very non-traditional spaces.”

The AEP is currently in the middle of a huge three-month road tour. The first team recently returned from the Kimberley where the communities visited included Kununurra, Warmun, Halls Creek, Lundja, Wurreranginy, Gordon Downs Station, Kalumburu, Dawul and Wyndham.

The feedback from teachers at these communities emphasised the AEP’s great value — both to the students and themselves.

“A fantastic program — each child was engaged and interested. Pitched at a level that could be understood by all children,” reports one.

“In future I will do more short experiments more regularly to encourage inquiry amongst the students,” says another.

The efficacy of the AEP has been investigated more formally by Edith Cowan University’s Institute for Educational Research.

In 2012, it completed a study on the program’s impact on attitudes to science and school attendance, and the impact on the confidence of teachers in delivering science.

Its report concluded that the program was the most significant initiative addressing the science education needs of Indigenous students in WA’s remote schools.

“One of the most exciting findings is that the program has the potential to offer a model that can be implemented in Australia and beyond and, as such, could address the large gaps between science achievements for Indigenous and non-Indigenous students,” said Edith Cowan University researcher Matt Byrne.

The AEP’s value was recognised the same year when it won the Roy L. Shafer Leading Edge Award for Visitor Experience at the Association of Science and Technology Centres (ASTC) Awards in Columbus, Ohio.

Formula for school

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Woodside’s Perth-based Indigenous trainees and their supervisors enjoyed a successful afternoon of team building at the end of April in the Indigenous Games Corporate Cup.

The Indigenous Games comprised some 50-plus entrants from companies big and small across Perth. It was held in Kings Park and Woodside sent a team of 16 comprising Indigenous staff, trainees and supervisors.

Billie-Cherie Kickett, human resources coordinator for Indigenous employment, organised Woodside’s participation to enhance cultural learning and team building in a different way that also promoted health and wellbeing.

Shanine Ryan, senior human resources advisor for Indigenous employment says: “The day proved to be a fantastic opportunity for the supervisors and trainees to work together in a fun environment playing traditional Aboriginal games.

“This required coming together as a team and working on strategies and ways to approach each game to ultimately win as many points as possible. We were up against some really competitive challengers, but our teams did not give up lightly.”

They enjoyed a measure of success, too. The Woodsiders formed two

for fun and gamesteams and Team 2 took third spot in the overall event.

Oshayla Yarran, an administration trainee in risk and compliance, took out the top individual award as Star of the Day, while Shaquille Oakley won an award for demonstrating the best moves.

Oshayla, 18, says her favourite sport was dodgeball and was pleasantly surprised by collecting the Star award.

“I didn’t expect anything — I just came along to have fun,” she says.

She says she comes from a competitive family and she demonstrates her sporting enthusiasm with the Zodiacs in the Southern Districts Netball Association. Oshayla has taken out four club fairest and best awards and been runner-up once in the past five years.

Shaquille Oakley used his football prowess as a half back with the Nollamara Kangaroos in all the games in which he participated at the Indigenous Games.

In fact, he was so nimble he was awarded a prize for being the best mover and received a necklace featuring a disco “ball” to denote his fancy footwork.

The 20-year-old business administration trainee, production, says he best enjoyed the team-building

which evolved from the day’s sports.

“It was really great,” he says.

The Traditional Indigenous Games (Yulunga) was developed by the Australian Sports Commission through 10 years of research by Dr Ken Edwards with the aim of preserving and promoting Indigenous sporting heritage.

The Nyoongar Sports Association (NSA) offers the chance to participate in the games and is adapted to be played safely by participants of all ages.

The truly unique Australian Corporate challenge was first held in October last year and was deemed to be a roaring success, so another Cup was arranged in April this year. Other companies that sent teams included Rio Tinto and ABB and the Aboriginal Health Council of Western Australia.

The Nyoongar Sports Association (NSA) is an Aboriginal health promotion charity that provides a variety of active recreation and healthy lifestyle programs and services in order to build physical, mental and social health and well-being in Indigenous communities around the South West.

The event’s proceeds will be directed to increasing the scope and reach of their community programs — a worthy cause that is making a difference in closing the gap for many Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders.

Teaming upTeamwork: Woodside’s Indigenous trainees and their supervisors got to enhance cultural learning as well as practise their teamwork during the Indigenous games Corporate Cup.


Woodside is making solid progress in meeting the goals established in the second Reconciliation Action Plan (RAP), and already has passed some important milestones.

Our RAP, which spans 2011 to 2015, constitutes a significant escalation in our commitments to improve outcomes for Indigenous communities on a broad range of fronts, as well as promoting understanding of issues affecting Indigenous communities.

Thus, more than 300 Woodsiders attended cultural awareness sessions in 2013, meaning more than 1150 have attended since 2011. Our RAP aspiration was to reach the figure of 750 by the end of 2015.

One of the most important areas is employment to underpin the economic well-being of these communities, and Indigenous employment increased by almost 10% in 2013 to 101 employees.

But it is perhaps with contractors that the RAP has gained the most traction.

For example, the RAP requires the company to award 50 contracts to Indigenous businesses. The company

and its contractors already have achieved 83 contracts, worth a total of $9 million.

This contrasts with 2011 when the annual spend with Indigenous businesses was 10 contracts with less than $725,000 in annual expenditure.

Derek Albert, Woodside Indigenous business coordinator, says our long-term alignment with Supply Nation — the organisation that connects corporate Australia with Indigenous business owners — has proved of great benefit.

Woodside is making great use of Supply Nation’s “First Steps” training to assist its contractors better understand how to identify and then engage local Indigenous business owners, Derek says.

As more contractors better understand how to engage with Indigenous-owned businesses the diversity and volume of contracting opportunities will eventually provide the sustainable economic base that regional Indigenous communities have been hoping for.

In total, Woodside has now trained 25

contractors. who last year contributed 47% of Woodside’s Indigenous contracting outcomes. Derek anticipates that eventually around 80% of Woodside’s engagement with Indigenous owned businesses should come from Woodside and Supply Nation trained contractors.

Indigenous supplier development adviser Connie McDonnagh nominates Sodexo, Mermaid Marine, Technip and ISS as four Woodside contractors which have distinguished themselves in recognising the opportunity to contribute to Woodside’s efforts to promote Indigenous entrepreneurism and create a new generation of Indigenous businesses owners.

Derek says contractor engagement is critical in assisting Woodside to help “close the gap” of Indigenous disadvantage.

“We are encouraged by the involvement and commitment of our contractors in making the journey with us in engaging with local Indigenous businesses,” he says.

“This ensures we continue to contribute to the development of

Solid progress on

RAP goals

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not only longer-term sustainable commercial outcomes, but also to positively contribute to communities in areas where we operate.”

John Litchfield, manager Indigenous affairs, notes that Woodside is making great strides in other areas of the RAP.

“On the education pathways, we’re tracking well or exceeding goals,” John says.

That includes delivering on our commitment to establish community cadetships for Indigenous students.

These cadetships provide support to tertiary students studying in areas that Woodside does not usually recruit into its business. Areas of study include teaching and health, and details of the successful applicants are set to be announced shortly.

But though Woodside has come a long way with its second RAP, John says there is no room for complacency and there are areas that require renewed focus to ensure goals are reached.

With the RAP in its penultimate year, these challenges will come into sharper focus as work also begins on preparing its successor to continue the work of advancing reconciliation.

“We need to maintain a level of

accountability against measurable goals,” says John.

“At the same time, we need to ensure our targets are flexible enough to take into account changing circumstances.”

Clockwise from left - Jamie Stewart (GLH Contracting), Joseph Higgins (Spearpoints Corporation) and Kym Collard (Kulbardi) address Woodside contractors at a seminar on dealing with Indigenous businesses; two composite Clontarf North and South team compete for the Woodside Cup, which was presented by executive vice president corporate and commercial Rob Cole; Craig Banks, Sheila Simpson, Sharmain Sands (Kuditj Kitchen caterers) and Simon Baldwin get together at a seminar organised by Supply Nation.


In the lead-up to Woodside’s 60th birthday, the company showcased its biggest achievements to date.

An exhibition featuring a timeline of highlights and an interactive TV screen were set up at Woodside Plaza to give staff and the wider community a chance to explore and appreciate what has been achieved since the company listed on the stock exchange back in July, 1964.

This covered everything from the tough early days of searching for oil in Gippsland through to the purchase of a permit to explore the waters of the North West coast of Western Australia and on

to the start-up of Pluto LNG and beyond.

It tracked our growth from a little Melbourne-based exploration outfit to Australia’s largest independent oil and gas company now with multi-storey headquarters in Perth and country managers working in different places around the world.

A similar history showcase was set up in Karratha.

Staff also received a gift to mark the occasion. Commemorative picnic blankets were handed out to employees as a token of thanks for their contribution to our journey so far.

Sharing in the celebration

Marking a milestone: Showcases were set up at Woodside Plaza and the Karratha Leisureplex to mark our company’s 60th anniversary. Company leaders Phil Loader, Niall Myles, Peter Coleman, Greg Roder and Mike Utsler were among the first to view the Karratha exhibit.

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In early June, Woodside welcomed its longest serving employees into the company’s newly formed 20 Year Club.

It was an occasion in which many memories and much laughter were shared as the inaugural inductees came together at functions in Karratha and Perth.

The club’s launch coincides with three significant milestones for Woodside – its 60th anniversary, 30th year of domestic gas production and 25th year of LNG exports.

As chief executive officer Peter Coleman noted: “The combined contribution of the members of this club has been invaluable in getting the company where it is today.”

He spoke of challenges faced and met, of opportunities grasped and experience gained.

He talked of their enduring commitment and dedication over a period of incredible change and transformation.

Welcome to the clubHe acknowledged the significance of the family members and friends who have supported their efforts along the way.

The club recognises people who have provided 20 years or more of continuous service to the company,

whether still working or retired. It now has about 200 members.

Functions will be held each year to induct those who newly reach this milestone and welcome back those existing members.

Sharing in the celebration

Club champions: Chief executive officer Peter Coleman congratulates Karratha inductees at the inaugural 20 Year Club event. In Perth, he paid tribute to the longest-serving employees at that event, Carolyn Mackenzie and Brian Haggerty.


Woodside was named Corporate Volunteer of the Year at the annual West Australian Volunteering Gala Awards in May but chief executive officer Peter Coleman is clear that it is the company’s volunteers who deserve most of the kudos.

“This is great recognition of the community spirit that exists among Woodsiders — a thank you to every one of you who has contributed time and effort to our volunteering program,” Peter says.

“So while this award recognises us as ‘an employer who leads and excels in a best practice corporate volunteering program to benefit the Western Australian community’, it is first and foremost a tribute to the great commitment of our people.

“Without your efforts, Woodside’s volunteering program and our contribution and connection to the community would not be such a success.”

He says he is very proud of the fact that the company has one of the highest corporate rates of employee volunteerism and participation in Australia, as has been recognised by the London Benchmarking Group.

In fact, Woodside was Volunteering WA’s first corporate volunteering member and one of the first companies in the country to provide paid volunteering leave for employees.

In 2013, Woodsiders donated 5400 hours of employee time to volunteering, valued at almost $1 million, and so far this year more than 150 personnel have taken part in the company’s volunteering program.

Peter notes that Woodsiders have expressed the desire that the company connect with organisations that supported causes they felt passionate about, and the Communities team has taken note.

Communities general manager Bev East says Woodside’s volunteers have a reputation for being hard workers and very focused on getting the job done well.

She says the company’s evaluation of its involvement with volunteering

Recognition for volunteersDown to earth: The valuable work of Woodside’s many volunteers has been formally recognised with the company named Corporate Volunteer of the Year.

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has demonstrated that the benefits extend to the individuals, teams and to Woodside itself.

“Most of our volunteers report increased teamwork and a sense of well-being, as well as an increased empathy of others and more awareness of wider social issues,” Bev says.

The evaluation data shows the benefits for the company are also significant, such as:

• Three-quarters of volunteers feel an increased pride in their company and their job

• Seven in 10 report increased motivation and say they would speak more positively about their company, and

When Fremantle Dockers’ captain Matthew Pavlich played his 300th game in May, Woodside was there to mark the occasion.

In fact, Pav’s big game coincided with the Woodside round of the AFL.

This meant that young footballers from Clontarf academies throughout Western Australia got an opportunity compete for the Woodside Cup in a

Flying the flag for Freo

• More than half report increased leadership, planning and decision-making skills.

The Corporate Volunteering award also elicited congratulations from our community partners, including Kalparrin — a not-for-profit organisation based at Princess Margaret Hospital that supports families of children with special needs.

Woodside volunteers helped Kalparrin in February with a joy flight for 150 special needs children and their carers on a Qantas plane on what was called the Woodside Up and Away Day.

Libby Lyons, then chair of the Kalparrin board, wrote: “The six volunteers who helped us on the day were great ambassadors for Woodside and a very practical example of how your role in

community support is much more than just financial.

“Our event would not have run so smoothly without your volunteers and judging from their feedback and enthusiasm on the day, we can understand how such a professional corporate volunteering program would make Woodside an employer of choice.”

Not content with having an award-winning program, the Communities team is continuing to finesse its volunteering links.

To this end it has developed the next stage in our volunteering journey — the skill-based deployment of Woodside volunteers in organisations where their contribution can create maximum benefit.

curtain-raiser before the main game.

And, while they were playing inside Patersons Stadium to a growing crowd, a team of 50 Woodsiders and their friends were busy outside ensuring those arriving for Pav’s milestone match were well equipped for the celebration.

These volunteers arrived early to help hand out 15,000 commemorative

posters and 20,000 inflatable replica Dockers guernseys to supporters on their way into the ground.

It set the scene for a memorable night in which Pav also kicked his 600th AFL goal.

Woodside is a major sponsor and Indigenous program partner of the Fremantle Dockers.


The marketing team enjoyed an away day with a difference in March but a charity in Mandurah was also a beneficiary.

Besides exercises aimed at fostering camaraderie and co-operation, the 30 or so members of the department were split into groups to assemble five bicycles.

The bikes were then donated (complete with bicycle helmets) to a local resource centre for young people, Peel Passages.

The idea was the brainchild of Mark Hanna, senior general manager LNG marketing and shipping, while management assistant Anita Barbieri was charged with putting the plan into practice.

Mark says the day involved other traditional team-building exercises

before the bike assembly was unveiled as the last event of the day.

Fortunately, marketing employs some avid cyclists and their expertise was called on for the trickier aspects of the task, such as adjusting the gears and brakes.

Any frustrations encountered quickly evaporated when the bikes were handed over to the grateful recipients.

“It was amazing for us to see how something as simple as bicycles could mean so much,” Mark says.

Peel Passages is one of two resource centres (the other is in Northbridge) that provide a safe and friendly place for young people who are marginalised and/or spend a lot of time on the streets.

They are joint ventures of the St Vincent de Paul Society and the Rotary Club of Perth.

Passages encourages the young people to make informed decisions and adopt safe and healthy lifestyles, and the centres allow them to access essential services such as laundry facilities, phone and mail collection and internet access.

Janine, the Peel Passages co-ordinator, was invited to the bike handover at Mandurah Quay Resort, and said: “We are incredibly grateful for this generous gift from Woodside.

“We will be able to use these bikes for our young people who have difficulty accessing transport.”

Mark said the marketing team was so impressed with the warmth with which the donation was received that they’re looking to engage in further charitable works in the near future.

Exercisingcommunity spirit

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random discoveries

Welcome to the column which attempts to put more Woodside people back on the pages of Trunkline.

Random Discoveries aims to be just that – the presentation of bits of information about your

colleagues that you probably did not know. The diary style calls for surprise, humour and, most of all,

brevity. Please send your contributions to [email protected].

Woodside engineer Tian Williams experienced a remarkable walk in the footsteps of his late grandfather after taking part recently in a television documentary on the Z Special Unit.

The unit was formed in World War II to sabotage the Japanese military in South East Asia.

From 60 applicants, filmmakers chose six descendants of former members of Z to take part and find out more about what their forefathers did and how they trained.

Tian, an instrument and control engineer on Goodwyn A, was invited because his grandfather, Teh Soen Hin, was a member of Z.

The three-part documentary series, entitled Australia’s Secret Heroes, screened on SBS from Sunday 15 June.

Teh Soen Hin was born on Rote Island off Timor. Of Chinese and Indonesian descent, he worked in the pearling industry in Broome before he moved to Perth and joined the Civilian Army as an Allied Alien.

When the Allies established Z, they sought recruits with Asian heritage so they could blend in with locals in undercover operations behind enemy lines.

Teh was one such recruit and in 1945, Operation Semut was parachuted into the jungles of Borneo where he helped train the local tribes to form resistance groups against the Japanese.

After the war, Teh settled in Broome and married a widow, Philomena Howard, who had six children. The couple had two more including a girl, Otjee, who married James Williams. Otjee and James are parents to

Tian (whose name is a diminutive of Christian, Teh’s uncle’s name.)

Tian, 29, says he never knew his grandfather, “He died in 1984, the year before I was born,” he explains.

“Really, the only thing I knew about my grandfather was that he served in Z Special Unit. My mother said he never really spoke of his experiences, except when he told stories in a light-hearted way, probably due to the fact, that they were sworn to secrecy.”

Tian spent two weeks in July 2013 filming in Broken Bay, NSW, where he and the Z member descendants underwent the type of training their forefathers had experienced — bush survival training, canoeing, hand-to-hand combat and explosives.

“It gave me a glimpse of what they had undergone and it was a bit of a shock to the system,” Tian says. The training included a trip in a one-man submarine which he described as “quite scary”, and trapping and killing a wild boar.

They also re-enacted some of Z’s successful operations.

In September 2013, Tian accompanied Brendan Sue, the grandson of fellow Z member, Jack Sue, to Borneo.

It was there Tian met a local tribesman who had fought alongside Teh but never heard from him again after the war.

It was an emotional reunion and for good reason.

“My grandfather had saved his life when he was caught in an explosion in the jungle,” Tian said. “He picked him up and hid him in a cave while the Japanese searched for them.”

Tian’s arrival was proof that Teh had survived the war.

Tian salutes secret heroes


Phoenix team rises to challenge

random discoveries

Ten Woodsiders will swap comfy office chairs for bike saddles when they embark on a marathon charity ride through South Africa later this year, aiming to raise $75,000 for the Phoenix Burns Unit in Cape Town.

The employees, from exploration, geotechnical operations (GTO) and Karratha, will cycle some 420km of gravel roads through villages and ranges in the Western Cape over five days.

The ride finishes in Cape Town where the riders will visit the children’s burns hospital to hand over the funds raised.

The Woodsiders have called themselves the Phoenix Flyers after the Phoenix Burns Project — a charity that promotes burn prevention and works to improve the quality of life for children burn survivors and families.

Contract specialist Serena Hone says house fires are commonplace in shanty towns where electricity is unavailable and paraffin heaters and candles provide much of the lighting, heating and cooking.

Fires easily spread among ramshackle homes and quickly cause devastation

“Then there are children who pull boiling water and hot porridge on top

of themselves or are the victims of crime,” Serena says.

Not only is care for burns victim in the shanty towns very limited, but scarring and disfigurement can prove a stigma that creates more disadvantage. As a result the girls sometimes turn to prostitution to survive, the boys to crime.

Moreover, some of the mothers are only teenagers and are unable to cope with the job of providing the necessary care for their children.

The Phoenix Burns Project was established to provide care for burns victims and their families, and it includes ongoing rehabilitation, basic household and personal items to replace those lost in fires, and the welfare of the victims if they are abandoned by their families.

Its work was brought to Woodside’s attention by Phil Loader, executive vice president global exploration, when he joined the company in 2013.

Phil worked in South Africa at multiple times during his career, and became an enthusiastic supporter of the burns unit during this time. He rode in the event in 2011/2012, and willingly told Woodside’s exploration staff about the cause he supported and the reasoning behind.

“Phil’s passionate about the well-being of the children,” said Serena. “He’s seen firsthand what’s happened to the kids and that passion has spread to us.”

Not all the Phoenix Flyers are experienced cyclists and at least one has bought a bike especially to take part in the ride.

Geologist Fiona High says fund raising has included active and passive elements, and is gaining momentum as they strive to reach their ambitious target.

Apart from holding BBQs outside hardware stores at weekends, there have also been bake-offs, raffles, bootcamps, competitions, and other money-raisers which will grow in size throughout the year.

A playpen has been placed on the 21st floor of Woodside Plaza to collect no longer used teddy bears and soft toys, which will be presented to the children of the burns unit at the end of the ride to bring comfort when undergoing treatment.

Any Woodsiders or non-Woodsiders who want to donate to the cause can do so by visiting the website at www.justgiving.com/PhoenixFlyers2014

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random discoveries

Cycling is a popular way to get fit these days but riding into a car at more than 50kmh didn’t do much for Ben Larsson’s health.

Ben was training in December 2012 in Mornington, Victoria, when a car turned sharply in front of him, leaving him no time to take evasive action.

He hit the car bonnet, then windscreen and was catapulted on to the road. The crash broke two vertebrae, fractured his left scapula, severed a nerve in his neck and caused bleeding on his brain.

“As I lay on the road and the seriousness of my injuries became evident I cried as my first thought was ‘there goes my Ironman’,” recalls Ben, a Pluto fly in-fly out maintenance technician based at Pluto LNG Park.

Ironman events are daunting enough for the superbly fit. They comprise a 3.8km swim followed by a 180km bike ride and finish with a 42km run.

Ben, 38, already a keen cyclist, had decided that such a race would be the ultimate test of an endurance athlete. “I wanted to line up on the start line and see how good of an athlete I could be,” he says.

His quest to enter the Ironman Asia-Pacific Championships in Melbourne

Ironman’s steely resolve

in March 2013 was featured in the Q4 2012 issue of Trunkline. The crash now meant that taking part was all but out of the question, as were his “wild dreams” of qualifying for the Ironman World Championship in Hawaii.

Amazingly, however, less than two months after his crash, Ben took part in a half Ironman in Auckland.

Even more amazingly, he entered and completed the Melbourne Ironman in March.

While most people would be proud to finish an Ironman, let alone only three months after such a serious accident, Ben was bitterly disappointed with coming 222nd out of a field of more than 2200.

He resolved to do better in 2014 and a punishing training regime (sometimes, more than 30 hours a week on his time off) paid off. By the time he took his place in the starting line-up, he felt “amazing”.

The race went pretty much according to plan although the effort he put into the last leg (the marathon) saw him carried off at the finish line to the medical tent.

Ben finished 18th in his 35-39 age group, and 90th out of a field of almost 2500.

Most importantly, he achieved his goal of going to Hawaii for the world championships by snagging a spot in the field — proof that determination and resolve pays off.

“I am now off to compete at Kona on October 11th,” he reports, “so I have months of even harder training.”

As part of the lead-up, Ben completed a half Ironman in Cairns in mid-June, finishing a very creditable 36th overall and seventh in his age group.

“I’ll really start ramping the training up from here,” he told Trunkline afterwards.

If simply qualifying for Hawaii was a goal, then competing will satisfy another — comparing himself with the world’s best.

After all, he always wanted to see how good an athlete he could become.

Moving from Victoria to WA to play football then swapping to triathlons has paid dividends for Julian Le Plastrier. The 36-year-old production technician has collected a WA Triathlete of the Year Award in his age category (35 to 39) following a string of stirring results in State competitions.

He travelled down from Karratha to Perth at the end of June to be presented with his award at the 2014 Triathlon Annual Awards at Patersons Stadium.

Julian moved from regional Victoria to Perth in 2005 after being recruited by Swan Districts Football Club to play in the WAFL.

The next year, he moved to Karratha, playing footy with the Karratha Kats and working at the Karratha Gas Plant (KGP) with a Woodside contractor, Savcor Pty.

In 2012 he successfully applied to Woodside for a process operator traineeship and in April this year he became a qualified process operator at KGP.

Julian started dabbling in triathlons before the 2010 Aussie Rules season and he found it an ideal way to stay fit and healthy.

“I noticed that I was getting stronger and faster in training at a reasonable rate and this spurred me on to train harder and harder and take triathlon a little more seriously,” he says.

He quit footy and joined a triathlon training group and his new coach predicted he could do “quite well” if he committed to the sport and raced more often.

He did better than that and won a couple of events, including the December 2013 Hillarys Sprint Distance event.

“I became the State Sprint Distance Champion which was awesome,” Julian says.

In fact, he enjoyed such an impressive list of results in triathlons in the summer of 2013-14 that it led to his award.

He’s also qualified for world championships on a couple of occasions but unfortunately he hasn’t been able to afford to go, and he’s been unable to take up the invitations.

For the future, Julian hopes to concentrate on the longer distance events such as Half Ironman and full Ironman distances.

His ultimate goal is to qualify for the Hawaiian Ironman World Championships, in his opinion the pinnacle of triathlon and definitely on his bucket list.

Sports switch pays off


random discoveries

A vessel sponsored by Woodside to undertake a whale and seabird survey of the waters off Ireland has scored a major coup with observers onboard spotting one of the world’s rarest birds.

A Bermuda petrel (also called a cahow) was seen from the Celtic Voyager in

the early evening of 19 May during a survey of cetaceans and seabirds.

It was spotted about 170 nautical miles west-north-west of Slea Head, County Kerry, by bird observers on board. They kept it in sight for about a minute before it flew off in a south-easterly direction.

It has been calculated that there are only 105 pairs of this species left in the world and even this low figure represents a remarkable advance. An intensive conservation program has seen numbers rise from a perilous 18 breeding pairs to the current total.

The Bermuda petrel is a slow-breeding ground nesting species that was all but wiped out in the 17th century, thanks to the introduction of dogs, rats and cats to the island by colonists.

It was rediscovered in 1951.

All nest in Bermuda and they have never before been spotted north of the Azores (although recent tracking has proved they do use the waters west of Ireland

Rare find

following their breeding season).

The Celtic Voyager was deploying sound loggers to record whales in the area where Woodside has four farm-in options for acreage in the Porcupine basin off the Irish west coast.

This is the first sighting of the species in Irish waters.

Niall Keogh is a seabird fieldworker with BirdWatch Ireland, a conservation charity, and he was one of four observers on board the Celtic Voyager.

“This is certainly the first sighting of this species in Irish waters and as far as I’m aware is the first sighting ‘at sea’ away from the Eastern seaboard of USA and Canada, bearing in mind there is a record of a bird caught on land on the Azores,” he said.

“I was determined to one day see a Bermuda Petrel in Irish waters.

“Now that it has happened I’m not really sure what I’ll be doing with myself in future!”

“$20, $50 or the barber’s chair!”

Those were the options Matt Western gave the Woodside crew on North Rankin A platform as he rattled the tin for the World’s Greatest Shave — the initiative that aims to get sponsors for people to shave their hair and beards to raise money for the fight against leukaemia.

“It’s part of our culture out here to donate and help a charity organisation or someone in need,” says Matt.

“In fact, it’s one of the few reasons that I bring money to work — to make some sort of donation to a charity or someone in need.”

Senior vice president North West Shelf Niall Myles was tapped for a donation when he arrived to gave a talk at North Rankin A platform on productivity improvement, and Niall happily handed over $50 to the cause.

In fact, Matt reports that not one person he asked declined to make a donation, and that was from 50-odd Woodsiders.

“No one refused, which was terrific,” he says, adding: “Maybe it had something to do with the three options

I gave the lads — $20, $50 or the barber’s chair!”

In fact, as our photograph shows several took up the option to have their heads shaved (or have their hair creatively coloured) by Bianca Dabernic, North Rankin’s resident hairdresser from the contractor, the ESS-Compass Group.

The grand total raised by the haircutting/colouring/shaving effort was $2500.

Matt flew home to Perth shortly after being sheared, and was wearing his World’s Greatest Shave T shirt on the flight.

An airline hostess took time to tell him that she’d recently fought the very disease he’d been fundraising for and was extremely thankful for his efforts.

And for Matt, that made his efforts “really worthwhile”, he says.

Short cut to $2500

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final frame

Dawn Sandy of Yinjaa-Barni Art chose wildflowers

as the inspiration for her painting of Fremantle

Dockers player Stephen Hill’s match-worn boots.

Dawn and Melissa Sandy were commissioned

to paint the boots of three of Freo’s Indigenous

players as part of Woodside’s contribution to the

Dockers’ Community Goals auction. Works by

artists from the Roebourne-based Yinjaa-Barni Art

group will also feature in an exhibition at Woodside

Plaza this November.


Woodside Energy Ltd.240 St Georges Terrace Perth, Western Australia G.P.O Box D188 Perth,Western Australia 6840t: +61 8 9348 4000 f: +61 8 9214 2777 www.woodside.com.au

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