The magazine for Woodside people | Q2 2017

Trunkline

Progressing well in Myanmar 4-5

Igniting cultural awareness 6-7

Power to the Pilbara 8

Stepping on the gas 9

Clearing the way forward 10

EditorKellie Bombardieri t: +61 8 9348 6743

JournalistsMark IrvingDanielle Bejr

AdministratorRachel Aumord

PhotographyAaron BunchRoss Swanborough Tamara BinAmatLwin Ko Ko Latt

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 intranet.

Xmas trees come early for GWF-2 11

Task force at Woodside adds up 12

Key to unlocking insight 13

Demolition delivers great takeaways 14-15

Healthy signs 16

Double triumph at APPEA 17

On the cover

Traditional Custodians Sealin Garlett and Richard Walley with our chief executive officer Peter Coleman during a smoking ceremony aimed at ensuring everyone feels comfortable and connected to the site of our new headquarters. Picture: Aaron Bunch

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18

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A day in the life of . . . 18-19

assistant company secretary

Farewell to Nor Australis 20

Teaming up 21

It’s game on for coaching 22-23

Taking the lead 24

Six of the best for MIT 25

World class 26

A helping hand to get on deck 27

Share the WoW factor 28

Spectrum broadens 29

Giving it their best shot 30

Tall order 31

Random Discoveries 32-34

Final Frame 35

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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.

Working sustainably is a key component of the way in which Woodside does business. As our Compass states, we are here for the long term; looking out for each other, our communities and the environment. A great example of this can be found in our article on the decommissioning of Gap Ridge Village. Big-picture thinking ensured waste was minimised – in fact, 99% of the village was recycled – and opportunities maximised. The project was completed safely, cost-effectively and with environmental sensitivity. It saw young aspiring leaders step up and, backed by an energised team, about 40% of which were Indigenous Australians, deliver some innovative solutions to standard challenges. Excellence is another of our core values. We want great results and strive for continuous improvement.

This openness to considering new ways of working is spurring some strong outcomes. Take, for example, use of the Watson tool for data mining. Since its adoption, the geohazards team has found it can now focus the bulk of its attention on interpreting rather than searching for data, previously an 80/20 split in the information hunt’s favour. Now the team is freed up to focus on the highest-value activity; an outcome other teams employing Watson are experiencing. Read on and you will find many more ways in which Woodside is working to deliver value in line with its values, from our drilling campaign in Myanmar to collaboration with organisations such as Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Examples abound.

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Notes on Petroleum Resource Estimates: All petroleum resource estimates in this publication are to be read in conjunction with the Reserves Statement in Woodside’s most recent annual report, as updated by subsequent ASX announcements available at http://www.woodside.com.au/Investors-Media/Announcements.

4 trunkline | Q2 2017

Woodside is working hard to gather the information it needs to maximise the proposed development of its prospects off the coast of Myanmar.

The exploration and appraisal campaign that kicked off in the Rakhine Basin earlier this year is bringing promising results, with strong flow rates detected.

Mark Thompson, our vice president of Exploration for Australia and the Asia-Pacific, says there has been a steady and substantial ramp-up of our activity in the region since we discovered gas in late 2015.

And the team has worked hard to set the scene for ongoing success.

“This is a high-value growth opportunity in an area where we have an early mover advantage,” Mark says.

“Yes, we want to progress swiftly and decisively, but we need to do this is a way that is consistent with our values.

“Our aim is to deliver a sustainable Myanmar gas business, through respectful relationships and a focus on excellence.”

Well delivery manager David Moon says this has been evident from the time he joined the campaign.

“There is a real buzz among those involved,” he says. “It’s exciting and we are all so focused on doing the right thing. Our standards are high.”

An example of this can be seen in the report card for the first Thalin-1 exploration well.

“Including load-out, it was achieved safely, on schedule and under budget,”

Dave says. “To begin a campaign in this way, in an area where we are a relatively new player, is remarkable but no less than we expect of ourselves.”

He credits a massive cross-functional effort for this result; an effort that began well before the start of drilling in mid-February.

This included the delivery of environmental impact assessments, the seeking of government approvals and appointment of relevant contractors.

It also involved preparation of the drill ship in a Singapore shipyard before load-out to Myanmar and the set-up of a supply base in nearby Thailand.

By the time drilling began, the number of Woodsiders in the Myanmar office had more than doubled, taking in expatriates as well as local staff.

Progressing wellin Myanmar

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“It’s a close-knit office environment with key functions represented, including Logistics, Finance, Security and Emergency Management,” Dave says. “And it’s very collaborative.

“You have to be resourceful to work in an international environment, robust and resilient.

“You’re away from the comfort of your headquarters, and the familiar support mechanisms that come from that, so it is good to know that you can go to each other as you navigate your new working world.

“I’m certainly proud to be part of the team. We have such a great group of people, onshore and offshore, building and contributing great capability.

“I can honestly say this is the best international start-up I have been involved in.

“Yes, we have our challenges – it is certainly not easy work – but it is enormously rewarding to be part of.”

Drilling down: Clockwise from over page, the drillship Dhirubhai Deepwater KG2 in position; the sun goes down on another busy day offshore; Dave Moon, pictured fourth from the left, with members of his team in Yangon; and wellsite manager Chris Wise addresses the morning meeting onboard the DDKG2.

6 trunkline | Q2 2017

Woodside is working with its employees and the wider community to ensure that cultural recognition is embedded in the new Woodside headquarters (WHQ).

A significant first step came with a cleansing ceremony conducted by Noongar Whadjuk Traditional Custodians at WHQ in early June to ensure the site would be one where the entire community feels comfortable and connected.

Such a ceremony is conducted to purify a specific area. It cleanses the spirit, body and soul of people while on Noongar country and helps ward off warra wirrin — bad spirits, bringing in the blessing of the kwop wirrin — good spirits.

For although the location of the WHQ on the banks of the Swan River might be prime real estate, the site has a difficult history.

Once a resting and camping place atop a natural spring, the use of the site and surrounds were forced to be abandoned by Whadjuk people following European settlement.

“As I’ve heard from Whadjuk people, the site is where Yellagonga, the Whadjuk leader, welcomed Captain James Stirling and his party when they landed in Perth,” explains Debbie Morrow, general manager global property and workplace.

“Stirling and his party were welcomed on to the land, but they never moved on as expected according to the tradition of moving with the seasons.”

Yellagonga and the Whadjuk people were forced away from the land and their spiritual connection was interrupted.

After lengthy discussions involving Woodside's Indigenous employees, external advisers and the Traditional Custodians, it was agreed that an initial cleansing ceremony would be held before the building fit-out to reconnect the site with the community.

The ceremony began at 5am with the lighting of with five separate fires, which were then tended by the Traditional Custodians until 7.30am when the ceremonial party moved to a central location.

Many of Woodside’s Executive, including chief executive officer Peter Coleman, were in attendance and cleansed as part of the ceremony.

“The stillness of the city before sunrise and the serenity of the fires brought home the potential that comes with maintaining a deep connection and respect for the land,” Debbie says.

Igniting culturalawareness

Light my fire: Clockwise from above, Traditional Custodian Nigel Wilkes with Woodsider Dwayn Bolton tend one of the fires at the smoking ceremony, held at the new Woodside Headquarters in June; Traditional Custodians Walter McGuire and Barry McGuire also tended fires; Vanessa Bullock and Laurent Rivalin joined prominent Aboriginal advocate Fred Chaney at a lunchtime panel discussion held at Woodside during Reconciliation Week.

Achievements, not just aspirations, is the hallmark of Woodside’s revised Reconciliation Action Plan (RAP) for 2016-2020 as the company sets out to ensure its activities are making a real difference to the communities in which we work.

The company has set 12 indicators of success to measure how Woodside is tracking in its journey to create real social change for Indigenous people.

Last year’s RAP was awarded the highest possible rating, Elevate, by Reconciliation Australia.

Woodside relaunched the RAP in May during Reconciliation Week, which had the theme “Let’s take the next step”.

“For the RAP, this is the next step,” says Yvette Manolas, corporate affairs manager communities.

“We’re making a step change in order to better measure and report the outcomes of our activities aimed at creating respect relationships, opportunities and national leadership.”

These outcomes will be measured against the indicators of success to ensure Woodside makes progress each year, she says.

For example, the updated report shows

that Woodside tripled its target growth in our cumulative contract awards to 16%, and enabled suppliers and community partners to increase their direct Indigenous employment by 83 individuals through Woodside scopes and funded programs.

These successes have driven Woodside to aim even higher and achieve more in 2017.

“Using these indicators as measurements of our way of working means that we can scale up against accountability,” Francine Schwarzbach, corporate affairs senior adviser Indigenous affairs, points out.

And the plans for 2017 continue to challenge Woodsiders to work towards our RAP outcomes.

“We want Woodsiders to increase their awareness of Indigenous culture, history and the current issues that affect them,” says Francine.

“As this occurs, on a company level we can focus on increasing our Indigenous employment participation rate and influencing our suppliers, community partners and other stakeholders to grow their own Indigenous workforces.”

Check out the RAP on Woodside's website.

Elevating success

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Two Woodsiders were invited to participate in ceremonial business: Dwayn Bolton, a Whadjuk man who is part of the Front of House team; and John Litchfield, manager Indigenous engagement.

“It was a real privilege and honour,” says Dwayn.

The event was made even more special for Dwayn as he sat with his grandfather, Nigel Wilkes, who was tending one of the five fires.

Another cleansing ceremony will be held before officially opening WHQ.

Whadjuk adviser Carol Innes, who was involved in the engagement with Woodside, notes that WHQ is on a very significant cultural site.

"Woodside's engagement with the Whadjuk community is helping develop a strong cultural understanding of Noongar culture which Woodside and the Whadjuk Noongar community can celebrate together," Carol says.

"It's a way to create a common way of working to incorporate cultural recognition into the future."

Woodside’s desire to walk alongside Indigenous peoples prompts us to think about how we interact with host communities in all parts of the world.

8 trunkline | Q2 2017

Woodside’s plan for an LNG truck loading facility at Pluto is the beginning of a step change in powering the Pilbara – the replacement of diesel and heavy fuel oil with LNG.

Currently, three billion litres of diesel a year is imported into the Pilbara, the majority of which is used to generate power and power locomotives and mining equipment. This facility will allow LNG from Pluto to be trucked to customers as a substitute for diesel.

LNG is “cleaner and greener” than diesel, and is lower cost.

Moreover, most diesel is imported from South-East Asia so locally produced LNG would be a valuable import substitute.

“LNG is a fuel of the future in the Pilbara which will offer a step change in energy costs and emissions,” says Craig Jennings, opportunity manager for LNG fuels in the power and new markets team.

"It will also reduce exposure to future tougher pollutant limits and carbon pricing."

Pluto asset manager Mike Price agrees.

“This LNG truck loading facility will provide a good opportunity for Woodside because we’re in the right place at the right time,” says Mike.

Mike says dual fuel technology has been around for a while and it is expanding from stationary to mobile applications, such as locomotives and mine trucks.

“LNG to fuel mine equipment, trains and ships could create a new market for us,” he says.

The new Pluto facility will provide LNG to the dual fuel powered platform support vessel Siem Thiima that Woodside introduced in February (see Trunkline Q1 2017).

It will also fuel the company’s other marine support vessels as they convert to LNG.

Project manager Suzannah Randle says the environmental case to replace diesel with LNG is very strong.

LNG offers up to 25% reduction in CO2 emissions compared to diesel, and even more compared to heavy fuel oil.

Compared to diesel and fuel oil, it emits almost no particulates or sulfur compounds and less NOx.

“If we can switch a portion of the diesel used in the Pilbara to LNG using LNG from this facility, the emissions reductions are expected to be considerable,” she says.

Suzannah is based in the Integrated Projects Program (IPP), which sits in Projects.

IPP was set up to deliver small to medium-size projects that don’t fit into the traditional brownfields project model but are not big enough to be a stand-alone project in their own right.

“Given the big number of stakeholders this project has, internally and externally, it was an ideal candidate for IPP,” Suzannah points out.

If investment approval occurs, the facility will be on Pluto Site A and will see LNG taken from the main tanks at Pluto and loaded on to trucks for distribution to customers throughout the Pilbara.

The initial facility will allow loading of a double-trailer road train, and is designed to be easily expandable as the market grows.

“We have already had significant customer interest in LNG,” explains Craig.

“Mining companies throughout the region have been excited by the opportunity to access LNG from Woodside as an alternative to diesel.

“In particular we have had strong interest from companies who would use LNG for remote power generation where their only option is diesel, and others who are very keen to trial LNG for mining equipment.”

Power to the PilbaraTruck stop: Craig Jennings, Suzannah Randle and Richard Hayes examine the proposed location for the new LNG truck loading facility at Pluto.

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Removing the restrictor from a shower head is one way to increase the flow rate of the water.

A similar principle is under investigation at Pluto – only it involves easing the electronic restrictions on the speed of gas flowing through pipelines, not water through a shower head.

“Removing some of the restrictions – incrementally and in a controlled manner – could allow gas to be safely ramped up,” says senior process engineer Phil West.

Phil has been in charge of a “warm high rate” trial to increase flow rates at Pluto LNG plant over four days in April to determine whether an increased flow rate could be done safely during warm weather temperatures.

“We wanted to see how the equipment would perform under hot weather conditions,” explains Pluto operations manager Mike Knuckey.

The trial included the inspection of spreadsheets of data plus the visual inspection of pipes by an accelerometer to determine how much the pipes vibrate.

Phil describes the trial as an “outstanding success”, adding: “It was completed with minimal flaring, within the minimum planned three days and with zero health, safety and environment and process safety incidents.”

Steve Banks says congratulations are due to all those involved in Operations, Development, Projects and Engineering for both the execution of the trial and its preparation.

“It is an excellent example of collaboration between the teams. They did a great job in a very tight time-frame because the job had to be arranged quickly before the ambient air temperature fell too much,” Steve says.

“The warm high-rate trial proved up one of the options we currently have under examination for Pluto expansion.”

As development manager Pluto expansion, Steve is interested in the range of possible low-cost extensions or expansion options at the LNG plant.

It’s all part of Woodside’s goal of adding

value to existing operations – and in particular, to get more value out of Pluto.

Woodside is aiming to generate new value from low-cost extensions or expansions of existing project development.

To use Pluto’s unused capacity, Woodside might accelerate development of some of the gas reserves it holds, such as Pluto, Xena and the Pyxis field next to Pluto.

Or Woodside might process the resources of other operators in the region – or do both.

A range of options is being considered.

At the lower end of the scale is capacity

enhancement which would increase production by around 0.7 million tonnes per annum (MTPA).

“The warm high-rate trial we’ve just completed was to prove up the pre-treatment capacity that’s available and build a new liquefaction unit next to it,” says Steve.

More costly, but chasing greater value, would be a mid-sized “stand-alone” LNG train which would boost capacity by up to 1.5 MTPA.

Steve says the trial results were very satisfactory, but cautions: “More work is required to confirm whether these rates can be sustained safely and continuously in the future.”

Stepping on the gas

Warming up: Above, Phil West with Soe Naing, Ellie Beurteaux, Kerryn Cappy and Luke Gauci examine a vibration analyser used in Pluto’s warm high-rate trial. Below, Kerryn and Steve Ponting monitoring small bore fitting vibration with vibration analysers during the Pluto trials.

10 trunkline | Q2 2017

The ocean adjacent to the Karratha Gas Plant (KGP) is as smooth as glass at times but below the surface it’s a different story.

Hydrographic surveys of the ocean floor in July 2015 revealed a problem in the main shipping channel into KGP that wasn’t visible from the surface.

“The shipping channel had become narrower and shallower due to sediment build up on its sides,” explains Leigh Coleman, GWF-2 pipeline delivery manager.

“This presented a problem for our shipping logistics,” adds Greg Paten, the then marine shipping manager and now integrated logistics manager.

To mitigate risk to vessels posed by the sediment build up, additional wind restrictions and depth restrictions were imposed on all ships entering and departing the KGP channel.

So shipping schedules were not as efficient as they could have been.

“We understood that we needed to dredge the channel before 2017, as increased sediment build up would necessitate

additional restrictions that would further inhibit our shipping,” Greg says.

“But it would be a complex project that would need the involvement of many different areas including Environment, Marine, Subsea and Pipelines (SS&PL), and geotechnical operations (GTO).”

Greg asked SS&PL to project manage the dredging.

“SS&PL is often thought about in terms of laying pipelines and installing subsea equipment such as Xmas trees for wells,” says Leigh.

“But one aspect of our work that isn’t widely known is our support of ongoing operations at Woodside, including dredging of shipping channels.”

The SS&PL team knew there would be long lead times for environmental permits and contracting a dredging ship, so they moved quickly to issue a tender to fast track the project.

But other factors needed to be addressed.

“It was important to speak with all of the relevant stakeholders,” Leigh notes.

“Not only did the dredging project have to work around shipping schedules and the Karratha Life Extension Project, we also had to consider environmental factors such as turtle nesting periods.”

A vessel known as a trailing suction hopper dredger was contracted for the work.

First, a smaller vessel with a scraper shifted the built-up sediment from the seafloor into one area.

Then a large suction pipe was lowered from the dredger to suck the sediment and store it within the hold.

Once full the dredger safely disposed of the sediment at the disposal ground about 2.5km away.

The operation was a success, but there was more to come.

The project team decided to take advantage of the contracted dredging ship to complete some maintenance dredging at King Bay Supply Base (KBSB).

Leigh says this dredging was more challenging but on the upside, it has extended the time until the next dredging at KBSB.

The project was a great example of acceleration and collaboration.

From establishing the need to clear the shipping channels to the final dredging at KBSB took only nine months.

“But without the combined efforts of SS&PL, GTO, marine logistics and Environment, this project wouldn’t have benefitted from seamless collaboration and short-tracked time frame,” Leigh notes.

Greg reports that the dredging has resulted in the lifting of wind and depth restrictions on the shipping channel, meaning the shipping schedule is now more efficient.

“Subsea and pipelines delivered the project on time, within budget and with no safety or environmental incidents,” he says.

Clearing the

way forward

Scheduling success: Senior surveyor Lee Woolhouse discusses the dredging timetable with integrated logistics manager Greg Paten and GWF-2 pipeline delivery manager Leigh Coleman.

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Clearing the

way forwardFrom collaboration comes acceleration and the Greater Western Flank 2 (GWF-2) Project has produced a superb example of what great teamwork can achieve.

The Project recently took delivery of its first batch of four subsea Xmas tree systems – two months ahead of schedule and only 14 months since the final investment decision.

GWF-2 is the fourth major gas development for the North West Shelf Project in the past seven years.

Eight subsea wells will unlock some 1.6 trillion cubic feet of gas in six fields with tie-backs to the Goodwyn A platform, some 35km away. First gas is scheduled for the second half of 2019.

The earlier-than-expected hand-over of the Xmas trees took place in April at the Malaysia facility of the vendor, TechnipFMC.

Fiachra Gleeson, GWF-2 subsea delivery manager, says one benefit of the early delivery was the opportunity to use an installation vessel to install the tubing head spools on to the wellheads instead of by the drill rig.

“This means less handling for the drill rig, and that means a safer deployment of the tubing head spools,” he explains.

Baard Kristiansen, GWF-2 Light Well Intervention (LWI) package lead, says it’s the teamwork developed by the GWF-2 Project, Subsea and Pipelines (SS&PL), Drilling and Completions (D&C), and Contracts and Procurement that enabled the fast track award of this scope to contractor DOF Subsea.

“The approved change request and subsequent short notice contract award, within a period of one month, exemplifies innovation, collaboration and acceleration across the organisation at its best,” Baard says.

Subsea hardware package lead Jamie VanDeVelde points out that collaboration was also evident in the decision by the GWF-2 Project, D&C and SS&PL to adopt LWI, which involves a vessel other than the drill rig to install the subsea trees.

Instead, TechnipFMC’s Island Performer – a purpose-built LWI vessel – will install all eight trees on the already-completed wells at each drill centre.

Jamie notes: “It eliminates the need for significant maintenance costs and shortens the schedule for the rig and the project.”

D&C well delivery manager Paul Kelley says: “This is a great outcome for the business because it reduced risk while

improving rig schedule certainty.”

Andy Fielding, GWF-2 Project manager says: “This is an excellent example of how collaboration between delivery teams can really make a difference, leading directly to an accelerated solution that has benefitted both the project and the business, while reducing the HSE risk.”

“Everybody should be very proud of what they have achieved to date.”

Innovation, collaboration and acceleration might be a Woodside mantra but it can spread outside the business, too.

And when our contractors catch on, it can produce great results.

The GWF-2 drill rig mooring pile installation is a great example of collaboration with a contractor adopting our guiding principles.

Offshore construction contractor FugroTSM (FTSM) designed, built and installed subsea mooring piles which allowed the rig Ocean Apex to moor up at the GWF2 drill centres without anchors during the cyclone season.

FTSM also designed and built a “drill tower” used on the construction vessel “Southern Ocean” that allowed the

piles to be drilled and installed into the seabed using only remotely operated vehicle technology – without a single HSEQ incident.

“This was an excellent example of collaboration between Woodside and FTSM to design, build and install something that was unique,” says Mike Robinson, senior vice president Projects.

“It was a fast-track engineering, procurement, installation and commissioning (EPIC) contract whereby FTSM in conjunction with Woodside developed an innovative solution to drill and grout the mooring piles from a dynamically positioned ship.”

To acknowledge this outstanding achievement, GWF-2 presented FTSM with a recognition award in May.

Fast track to award

Xmas trees come

early for GWF-2

Xmas celebrations: From left, Paul Warrington (DOF Subsea), Fiachra Gleeson, John Rossier Jr (DOF Subsea), Baard Kristiansen, Conrad Houghton (TechnipFMC), John Rossier Sr (DOF Subsea) and Renae Rundle at the GWF-2 Tubing Head Spool loadout on to the Skandi Singapore installation vessel.

12 trunkline | Q2 2017

Smart maths students plus a rich data bank plus Woodside know-how equals fresh insights into thorny problems.

That’s the equation that’s resulted from a visit earlier this year from some of the country’s top mathematics students.

Nine students from universities across Australia spent four weeks at Woodside taking part in a Work Integrated Learning pilot program – part of an initiative of the Australian Mathematical Sciences Institute (AMSI).

Last year, AMSI and industry collaborated to form a task force to co-ordinate industry-academic needs.

The pilot program is one spin-off and was aimed at giving maths students real-life experience of what industry needs while simultaneously helping companies get extra brain power to tackle some of their problems.

“The students are high achievers, hand-picked by their professors,” says Owen Mulder, centre of excellence manager, Science.

During their time at Woodside, they were presented with three problems

of real interest and importance to the company.

These problems related to enhancing the predictive capability of our models, detecting anomalies in our process data, and investigating the characteristics of various LNG operating states.

Owen says though the problems were of genuine interest to the data science team, they were difficult to prioritise.

“The arrival of the students provided a great opportunity to tackle these problems – not to find solutions necessarily, but to provide new insights and techniques to enhance our delivery,” he says.

And because of the very nature of data science, the fact that the students might not have had any expertise or even experience in oil and gas industry did not prevent them adding value in just four weeks.

Elsa Jordaan, principal data scientist, says that the students achieved real progress with all three problems.

“They all possessed remarkable talents but the problems they tackled went well beyond their formal training,” Elsa says.

“However, they all proved to be adaptable and were strong self-starters.

“And as a result, they left with valuable insights about the application of their skills to industry.”

Feedback from the students supports her assessment.

“We have been welcomed and respected from day one and it has been a challenging and rewarding experience,” reported Caitlin Gray

“Learning new mathematical skills, team management and effective communication in an industry-based setting has been challenging, eye-opening and rewarding,” said Ria Szeredi.

As for Woodside, the company benefited from their research with the students offering new insights.

“They worked on problems of genuine interest and we intend developing and implementing their key findings,” says Andrew Lockwood, principal geophysicist, who also supervised the students.

“We showed them how Woodside is using research and advanced technology to tackle new and potential problems and they showed us what they could do, so it was almost a trial of potential graduate employees."

His assessment that all nine were impressed by what data science could offer as a career was backed up by the feedback from student Allan Loi, who noted: “The diversity of applicable skills in data science is astonishing.”

Final word from Nigel Bean, of the University of Adelaide, who is one of the forces behind the task force.

Nigel says programs such as the one run at Woodside “could affect the whole approach to mathematics in Australia, including the way courses are taught”.

Task forceat Woodside adds up

Nine times table: Some of Australia’s brightest maths university students tackled Woodside problems using data science during their recent month-long visit.

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World-class performance demands world-class support and Woodside is intent on using world-leading technologies to drive outstanding results.

One such technology is data science, whereby systems and processes are developed to unlock insights from data.

The business is using data science to help unlock the collective intelligence of the organisation past and present, and as part of this it is changing the way we are working.

Geohazards manager Jurgen Streit is one beneficiary.

He has found the Watson tool developed by the data science team in collaboration with the business has helped to free up time to analyse data.

“Previously, for example, it might take two to three weeks to search through well completion reports and mine that data,” Jurgen says.

“That would account for, say, maybe up to 80% of project time leaving only 20% for interpreting the data and drawing conclusions. Now, we’ve a lot more time to interpret data rather than search for it.”

Technology is helping us be safer, too.

Health, safety, environment and quality (HSEQ) business manager Vivien Wong says Woodside has 30-plus years of incident data.

“But it’s not always easy to find,” Vivien notes.

“The tool developed by the HSEQ function and data science searches wide and deep; and it links information from multiple data bases so it makes it easier for us to find information and surface trends.

“We spend less time searching for the information and more time analysing to help inform hazards and risk assessments, or incident investigations.”

Woodside has also built a world-class analytics platform which, together with the expertise of data scientists, enables solutions to be found for business problems.

Karratha-based surveillance engineer Narelle Dale says she investigated a process issue at Pluto involving the Regenerative Thermal Oxidiser (RTO) using technology.

Narelle says the slow process of trawling through months of operating data, looking for key events, would have taken her ages, so she contacted the team at data science to see if it could help.

It could.

“By the power of data science we were able to gather minute-by-minute data for the entire four-year life of the RTO,” reports Narelle.

“This took only two hours but it would have taken me two weeks.”

The biggest win was yet to come.

Data science turned Narelle’s statistics into mathematical queries which in turn provided the results she was looking for.

“After only two days, we found the needle in the hay stack – a similar set of process conditions to what we had experienced,” says Narelle.

The outcomes helped inform the root cause of the process problem.

“I’m very grateful that data science came to the rescue and saved me from weeks of analysis-paralysis,” Narelle says.

It’s a good example of how data science is adding significant value to the bottom line.

Other opportunities – including external corrosion, energy efficiency and production maximisation – are in the trial phase prior to deployment across the business.

“Data science is a key enabler to improve profitability through a modern and better ‘way of working’ in the Australia Operating Unit (AOU),” says Niall Myles, senior vice president AOU.

“It is exciting that we are establishing the processes to ensure access to data science to all of our asset teams, and with a clear focus on performance improvement through innovation.”

Key to unlocking insight

Problem solving: Vivien Wong, Jurgen Streit, Lauchlan Wallace, and Neil Richards are discovering how data science can unlock the collective intelligence – past and present – of the organisation.

14 trunkline | Q2 2017

Take three enthusiastic young Woodside engineers, add some close collaboration with an innovative contractor and the outcome is the successful, safe demolition of Gap Ridge Village (GRV).

“The safety record has been most commendable – two minor first aid cases but no recordable injuries,” says project manager infrastructure Marlon Cooray of the five-month-long demolition process.

That process, which finished in May, saw more than 99% of the village recycled.

“Moreover, the program was executed during cyclone season and following some heavy rains in the area, which presented some extra challenges,” Marlon points out.

What’s more, he adds, innovation paid off in strategies such as the decision to tender and award to a contractor not previously used.

For example, the contractor Ertech sub-contracted a salvage specialist, Brajkovich Demolition & Salvage, which was able to on-sell and recover cost.

Construction of GRV, to house construction workers for the Pluto Project, started in 2007.

At its peak, there were more than 4000 people working to construct Pluto, of whom 2100 were accommodated at GRV.

The lease from the State of WA expired this May, and before it expired the Pluto joint venture was obliged to restore the 37ha site to its original condition.

That meant not only removing the 675 buildings but also removing all the underground services and rehabilitating the site.

“Brajkovich basically on-sold everything from frangipani plants to bike racks,” says Marlon.

“GRV has basically been distributed to six or seven other camps, plus farmers and the like. Virtually all the infrastructure is being re-used.”

This resulted in savings for the Pluto Project, not least because of the big reduction in waste disposal fees.

Marlon says the other pleasing aspect of the demolition program was that it comprised a high rate of Indigenous participation.

Ertech was incentivised to target 20% of the contractor’s workforce to be indigenous, but the final figure was closer to 40%.

“The reason we achieved such a high result was the contract incentive was merely the trigger for Ertech genuinely drive to exceed expectations,” Marlon explains.

He says Woodside’s corporate and social priorities were spelt out clearly to the main contractor and they were eagerly adopted.

The demolition of GRV also gave three young Woodsiders a great opportunity for experience in managing a project on site.

Mechanical engineer Lawson Wylie was one.

Now at KGP, Lawson helped set up the project with Marlon who, he says, made it clear very early on that there would be a strong focus on safety.

Demolition delivers

great takeaways

15

“For example, every negotiation meeting we held even those on commercial matters – started with a safety moment,” Lawson recalls.

“We reinforced the workforce as a community and encouraged them to own the whole project, not just their scope.

“So we did things like hold barbecues to celebrate a safe work week.

“By socialising, the work crew got to know each other better, which led to them having a vested interest in getting their mates home safely at the end of each day.”

Lawson says it was also very satisfying working on a project that contributed to the community through Indigenous employment, recycling and returning the land to its previous state.

“I found that good planning and contract management has led to outstanding project delivery and meeting the expectations of government stakeholders,” he notes.

Construction engineer Stephanie Robson says she learnt from the GRV project that “demolition isn’t always about smashing things”.

Stephanie adds: “It can be executed in a very organised and clean manner.

“The demolition and salvage contractors are examples of the old saying ‘one man’s trash is another man’s treasure’.

This has really opened my eyes to how much we can recycle or reuse if we think about it and get the right people.”

Logistics analyst Josh Taylor says he learnt a greater understanding of contract management, plus he increased his project execution and project management skills.

“And on a personal note, I got a taste of working in the Pilbara as a ‘quasi-FIFO’ worker,” Josh adds.

Marlon says contractor Ertech deserves congratulations for a job well done, including project manager Trevor Mackell.

“Trevor has demonstrated good

leadership and excellent execution skills in delivering the project and supporting Woodside personnel on site,” Marlon says.

Marlon says that importantly, Woodside and Ertech agreed a vision and commitments for the project before its start.

“We wanted to complete a quality project on time, on budget and feel proud of the positive legacy that we are leaving behind and in the knowledge that everybody made it home safely,” the vision statement read in part.

The site is now rehabilitated and Marlon says there is little evidence of GRV ever having existed.

Going, going . . . : From opposite page, clockwise. It once housed more than 2000 people but Gap Ridge Village has been removed from the landscape. Above, an innovative approach helped Lawson Wylie, Ertech's Trevor Mackell, Stephanie Robson and Josh Taylor ensure virtually all of the village was recycled. Below, the pristine state of the rehabilitated 37ha site.

16 trunkline | Q2 2017

Woodsiders have been doing their bit to promote the importance of robust mental health and wellbeing, well beyond the boundaries of the company.

When Logistics and Contracting and Procurement (C&P) staff were planning a trip last year to Europe for a conference and contractor visits, they decided it was a good chance to spread the health and safety message.

C&P manager Richard Bell says the idea originated because the trip occurred around the same time as last year’s Stand Together for Safety initiative.

“We spoke with the contractors and we said, let’s have a safety moment and talk about mental health and wellbeing,” says Richard.

“We told them that the Australian oil and gas industry has a Stand Together for Safety program.

“We asked: what are your companies doing in regards to this important issue? And would you join us in working together to implement improvement initiatives in Q4 of 2016? Would you make a commitment to a three-month initiative to see how we can improve mental health and wellbeing in our organisations?”

Richard says every one of the contractors enthusiastically agreed.

“Even those contractors that weren’t

doing business with Woodside at the time wanted to join in, which I found fantastic,” he adds.

Each of the contractors designed a program to boost mental health and wellbeing over three months.

A “virtual group” was established with Richard coordinating how the contractors’ plans were coming along and eliciting feedback.

After three months he sent out a précis of what each contractor had accomplished and, just for fun, each voted for “winner” of the best program.

Richard says: “Several fantastic initiatives were championed by senior managers up to CEO level.”

These included:• Siem Offshore marine vessels on

charter to Woodside having mental health and wellbeing inductions and safety moment focus;

• CHC (Canadian Helicopter Company) standing down choppers in Aberdeen and Karratha to have a safety session on mental health and wellbeing;

• Petersons Integrated Logistics, ASCO and DHL building mental health into 2017 health, safety and environment plans; and

• Woodside trialling the “headspace” meditation iPhone app.

Earlier this year, the initiatives were reviewed by all participants and it was

agreed that CHC had achieved the best outcome.

It also transpired that CHC had had supported and encouraged one of its engineers, Gareth Powell, through his depression.

“Gareth had become an internal champion of this issue and raised more than $4000 for the charity beyondblue on a Brisbane to Gold Coast bike ride,” says Richard.

On a recent visit to Karratha, Richard, Steve Brameld and Jeroen Buren visited the CHC heliport to personally deliver Gareth their congratulations.

“Even though we voted on a ‘winner’, all involved agreed that the true winner was the outcome of mental health and wellbeing issues being heightened at a corporate level,” Richard says.

Vincent D’Rozario, CHC’s regional director, says: “In today’s high-stress world, it is important for our people to know that their mental health is as vital to us as their physical health. 

“At CHC we are proud and happy to support Woodside in this fantastic initiative, the benefits being a continued increase in awareness of mental health and wellbeing.”

Richard says thanks are due to everyone who enthusiastically supported the initiative at CHC, Petersons Integrated Logistics, Siem Offshore, ASCO and DHL Industrial Project.

Healthy signs

Contractor co-operation: CHC’s Trisha Mulvey and Vincent D’Orazio, third left, were happy to support Woodside’s promotion of robust mental health and wellbeing. Richard Bell, second left, and Stefan Mischke were two Woodsiders behind the initiative, enthusiastically supported by several contractors.

17

Woodside has continued its recent stellar record of environment awards, collecting a national award for the third year in a row.

The Environment Excellence Award was presented at the 2017 conference of the Australian Petroleum and Production Exploration Association (APPEA), held in Perth in May.

Woodside also won APPEA’s Safety Excellence Award, making it the first time a company has won both awards the same year.

“Winning these awards is a team effort and reflects well on everyone,” said Fiona Hick, vice president Health, Safety, Environment and Quality (HSEQ). 

Fiona said excellence in HSE management started with the right vision and strategy, executed by passionate and competent people who drove excellence.

“Our submissions reflected the great work done by our HSEQ function and by leaders across the business who lead by example to champion HSEQ culture and performance,” she said.

Key themes in our submission for the Safety Excellence award included: risk management; contractor engagement; process safety; injury performance; major accident events; workforce engagement; and industry safety leadership.

We highlighted our total recordable injury rate (TRIR) in 2016 of 1.64, and the fact it represented both a 60% decrease since 2012 and the lowest TRIR in the company’s history.

And Woodside’s collaboration with IBM to implement Watson for HSEQ also featured in the submission.

“Our goal with Watson for HSEQ is that it will improve the way we learn from previous incidents, provide insights to prevent future events and so will support us towards leading HSE performance,” says Fiona.

APPEA board member Eric Streitberg noted that Woodside saw health and

safety performance as essential to business success and growth.

“The company’s Process Safety Management initiative (PSMi) implemented a framework to ensure that all Woodside assets and business functions have a standardised, globally applicable approach to managing process safety,” he added.

“PSMi also helped to eliminate key process safety management vulnerabilities and implemented high-priority improvements that Woodside considered necessary for a step-change in performance.”

The company achieved zero recordable injuries on the North Rankin Complex during the execution of the North West Shelf’s Persephone Project, as well as zero health and safety incidents on Balnaves Decommissioning – the company’s first decommissioning project.

The integrated turnaround at the North West Shelf Project – which involved all five LNG trains, the North Rankin Complex and the Goodwyn A Platform – was another great success from an HSEQ perspective.

“Woodside achieved an exceptional health and safety performance in executing this complex and far-reaching project – and it also laid a strong foundation for future improvements in safety management,” said Mr Streitberg, who is also Buru Energy’s executive chairman.

Double triumph at APPEA

For the Environment Excellence Award, Woodside’s key focus areas in the submission included: strategic planning; risk management; visible leadership and workforce engagement; climate change and energy efficiency; environmental monitoring programs; building in-country capability through strategic environment partnerships; and industry-wide leadership and partnerships.

Mr Streitberg said Woodside had consistently shown excellence across all facets of environmental performance.

“Woodside has integrated world-class environmental management into its exploration and its facilities,” he said.

“The company seeks to protect its workers, its communities and the environment by delivering sustained leading HSEQ performance.”

He also noted that Woodside focused strongly in 2016 on energy efficiency and the sustainable production of energy, noting that for the first time energy efficiency was a metric in our corporate scorecard.

Fiona said it was important that Woodside did not rest on its laurels but continued to improve its HSEQ performance.

“We are making strong progress towards delivering on our goal of industry-leading performance in HSEQ,” she said.

Star performance: Woodsiders celebrate a double win after the company collected the environment and safety awards at this year’s APPEA conference.

18 trunkline | Q2 2017

A day in the life of ...

secretaryassistant company

For many people, Woodside’s annual general meeting (AGM) offers a window into the company’s immediate past year and valuable insights into its vision for the future.

It’s the job of people who work in the Company Secretariat team including Pippa Marando to ensure that the AGM runs as smoothly as possible.

That requires a lot of work within Company Secretariat and in collaboration with other functions.

Pippa, assistant company secretary and senior legal counsel, grew up in regional WA.

She travelled for a year after completing her schooling and then studied law at the University of Notre Dame before joining a boutique corporate law firm in Perth.

“I was there six years and learnt a lot, but I always wanted to work as an in-house lawyer for a leading ASX-listed company with a strong reputation,” she recalls.

That goal became a reality in 2010 when Pippa joined Woodside.

“It’s very different to work for one client such as Woodside rather than many different clients because you can get so

much more involved in the business and work more closely with management,” she explains.

She says she’s grateful for the opportunities provided to her – from trips to Karratha to rotations in Internal Audit and the WMS upgrade.

Woodside has also helped Pippa leverage her studies, including her Master of Laws and other studies in applied finance and corporate governance.

She’s now back studying, this time for an MBA from the University of Western Australia.

“Studying has helped me in my work at Woodside, and vice versa, but after three years I can’t wait to get my evenings and weekends back,” she says.

Her typical day goes something like this:

6am: I usually start the day with a run along the coast, or walk on the beach with my dog and husband. It provides a quiet time to exercise and relax before the busy day ahead.

8am: I’m at my desk with a coffee to check my emails and catch up with team members on key activities for the day. I work with company secretary Warren Baillie as part of the bigger Legal

function, and a key part of our role is the interface between management and the Board.

With the annual general meeting, Q2 is always a very busy time. Today’s focus is ensuring everything is ready for next week’s Board meetings and AGM. But there’s a lot to keep us busy during the rest of the year, too.

8.30am: The entire Legal function meets every Tuesday. Regulatory environments are dynamic and it’s important we keep up to date with Australian and international legal and governance developments and what’s happening across the business.

The meetings alternate between internal presentations on Woodside’s business, and presentations from our panel of legal firms on emerging issues and best practice. We’re a relatively small team embedded across the business, and we work closely together to understand what’s happening in other areas and provide efficient advice which will help Woodside be a global leader. We also have regular morning teas and social drinks to stay in touch.

9.30am: I catch up with Neroli Ridgewell and Kieron Pearce, management and administration assistants respectively, who are doing a fantastic job liaising with the Perth Convention and

19

assistant companyExhibition Centre, service providers and the many Woodside employees who make the AGM a success.

The AGM is a key event for shareholders to hear directly from Woodside, make their voices heard by voting on resolutions and ask questions of the Board.

We’re continuing to identify new ways of increasing shareholder engagement and this year shareholders will be voting using electronic handsets.

10am: I check in with Sophie Morris, Andrew Decet and Michelle Grady from the Corporate Affairs communication team about the CEO and Chairman’s AGM speeches and briefing notes, and the media conference which will follow the AGM. The speeches are released to ASX just before the AGM starts, to make sure those investors who can’t attend have access to the same information.

10.30am: A meeting with Investor Relations and People and Global Capability teams.

They’ve been working hard engaging with institutional investors on the recent annual report and upcoming AGM resolutions. Last year, Chairman Michael Chaney and our Human Resources and Compensation Committee chair Melinda Cilento held 53 face-to-face meetings with key shareholders and advisers.

11.30am: A catch-up with Warren and our Board coordinator Barbra Graves to discuss plans for Board meetings in May – one of the busiest periods of the year.

Approving strategic plans and budgets is a power reserved to the Board and directors are very involved in setting company strategy. The Board will consider Woodside’s strengths and weaknesses, and review external trends and material issues relevant to Woodside’s strategy.

1pm: After a sandwich and some fresh air, I review Board papers at my desk. Directors often have about 75 papers to read each meeting. We work with management to develop meeting agendas based on the Board’s annual workplan and to ensure papers contain the right level of detail.

It’s important that papers from across the business provide a cohesive and balanced view of Woodside’s activities. For example, as cyber security has become an increasing issue, directors require greater information from internal and external sources to fully understand Woodside’s risk and control environment.

Directors meet six times a year in Perth and come from around the world, so we endeavour to optimise their time in Perth. The Board will tour Woodside’s new headquarters straight after the AGM.

2pm: I touch base with executives regarding their Board agenda items, including chief operations officer Mike Utsler as the responsible executive for the Sustainability Committee.

I’m making sure everything is in place for Ann Pickard to replace David McEvoy as Woodside’s Sustainability Committee

chair. David was the inaugural chair of the Sustainability Committee and the AGM is his last day. There has been a lot of change during his time, including most recently the Board implementing a Climate Change Policy.

3pm: As part of my responsibilities to implement continuous disclosure processes, I meet with the Exploration team to discuss results from a recent drilling program to ensure the market receives full and timely information about Woodside. All Legal team members provide informal and formal training on corporate governance obligations, including continuous disclosure, securities dealing and anti-bribery and corruption.

4pm: Assistant company secretary and legal counsel Kobi Fleming looks after the growing number of Woodside’s international subsidiaries. Woodside has 64 group entities across 22 different jurisdictions and there are increasing compliance requirements as our global footprint grows.

Kobi and I discuss the application of Woodside’s internal and external requirements in these jurisdictions. We work with overseas offices and advisers and other teams such as Tax, Finance, Exploration and Business Development and Growth to meet those requirements.

5.30pm: I’m getting ready to leave the office by now, and if I don’t have a uni class or study, I try to do a Pilates class downstairs. I find it a good balance to all the reading – and a good way to wind down after a busy day.

Legal eagle: Opposite page, Pippa Marando confers with senior legal counsel Wojciech Grzech; at the AGM with Kobi Fleming and Mike Utsler; above, with company secretariat members Barbra Graves, Warren Baillie, and Kobi; taking time out with her dog, Jack.

20 trunkline | Q2 2017

Woodside bid farewell to a loyal servant in March.

Over the past seven and a half years, the Nor Australis has delivered an integrated maintenance and project support service to our Australian offshore assets.

But a change in business requirements and market conditions meant it made better sense for Woodside instead to charter such vessels on a “needs basis”.

Nor Australis’ connection with the company ended on 19 March, and for many Woodsiders with fond memories of the vessel, it was a sad day.

“Nor Australis was a very, very efficient ship,” notes vessel superintendent James Eu.

“Also, the time taken to execute tasks dropped consistently during its time

with us, and this was no doubt in part due to the fact that a lot of the multi-national crew stayed with the vessel for years.”

Inspection, maintenance and repair (IMR) manager Ryan Arbon says the vessel was an outstanding example of Woodside’s core value of working together.

“There was an integrated team led by Woodside and with the vessels’ owner/operator, Solstad, providing the marine services,” Ryan says.

Nor Australis began its charter in August 2009 on the Enfield Phase II subsea extension project.

Its many campaigns included the pipeline pre-commissioning campaigns for Angel, Pluto and Greater Western Flank-1; Xena subsea installation and

Vincent multiphase pump replacement; and saturation diving campaigns to execute 14 jobs.

Not only did Nor Australis provide a stable environment to execute all subsea maintenance activities but it also provided 15 Woodside graduates with invaluable sea experience.

The change in the economic climate and business activity in the resources industry, plus changes in our operations and needs, prompted the switch to frame agreements for charters.

“The old model was based on a long-term charter with us as integrator of the service,” explains Ryan.

“But we’ve since changed direction so now we’ll go to the market on a needs basis and the contractor will become the integrator.”

This means better use of resources and Woodside will now receive a fully integrated service from a vessel.

“Not only have market conditions changed and we’re now able to get a bigger ‘bang for our buck’, but our requirements have also changed. We don’t need to carry out such an intense load of maintenance and repair scopes as we once did,” James says.

This reduction was due to numerous factors including a more rigorous evaluation of the types of inspection and maintenance required, he says.

Subsea and Pipeline production manager David Thain says that in 2008 it made business sense for Woodside, whose subsea infrastructure was growing, to hire a vessel long term.

“Back then, there were no vessels continuously in the region and each year we had to mobilise a vessel from international waters to carry out our maintenance activities,” David recalls.

“Nor Australis meant that Woodside could engineer solutions to accelerate Enfield, Vincent and Xena extension projects without the need for expensive construction and commissioning vessels.”

Farewell to Nor Australis

Nor Australis – Fast facts· Nor Australis experienced no lost time injury on three separate years.· Completed 555 individual scopes and 2524 valve operations.· Covered a distance equivalent to three times around the equator.· Remotely operated vehicles operating from the vessel have collected 40,000

gigabytes of video.· Its catering team has served 75,000 meals.

21

When it comes to crisis management, every second, every decision, every action counts. Likewise, in an elite-level AFL match.

So how do you maximise the impact of your moves as the minutes tick past?

It is a question both Woodside’s Security and Emergency Management team and the Fremantle Dockers’ coaching staff regularly consider. And, earlier this year, they joined forces to see what they could learn from each other.

The information exchange included Dockers coaches observing Woodside’s first crisis management exercise of the year – Exercise Navitas, which tested our response to a major impact on production within the Australia Operating Unit.

Then, a handful of Woodside leaders (Michael Robinson, Niall Myles, Angelo Chiappini and Ray Butler) spent stints in the coaches’ box during Fremantle’s final pre-season match – a clash against Carlton, which helped test the team’s game plan ahead of the official start of the AFL season.

Despite the widely varied scenarios, there were clear similarities in approach.

In both cases, teams comprising specialists in their fields, with distinct areas of focus, were formed. These teams played their defined part in achieving an overarching goal. They stopped at fixed points to assess their progress and adjusted plans according to feedback, data and results.

There was clear purpose, well-focused effort and a drive to deliver as efficiently and effectively as possible. It was high-performance stuff with a strong emphasis on improving the way forward.

Vince Connelly, crisis management adviser at Woodside, says this was evident in the way Dockers and Woodside staff seized on insights from one another that could help sharpen their own methods.

“These were opportunities designed for learning,” Vince says. “We were each ‘practising’ our approaches to the real deal – an actual emergency for us and a bid for premiership points for Freo.

“There was commonality in the basics, such as sharing a vision and aligning effort to achieve that, but there were variations in how this played out.

“These differences offered an opportunity for us to reflect on and challenge our respective approaches.”

Woodside security manager Ray Butler noted the Dockers’ intense appetite for feedback.

“Feedback is provided to every player for every training session and every game,” Ray says. “And the players welcome this feedback as they seek self-improvement.

“For example, the club uses live statistics from GPS tracking to constantly check status against individual performance KPIs. They review game vision and pinpoint areas of potential improvement.

“The environment is such that people expect feedback and are not surprised or concerned to receive direct and timely comments – and they act on it.”

Woodside’s formal feedback cycle turns more slowly, peaking twice a year with our performance review process (though our new talent management system, SuccessFactors, offers us an easy means of upping this effort and accelerating the learning that comes from it).

On the matter of process, the Dockers noted the highly structured way in which information was shared by Woodside’s emergency response participants.

“Our Crisis Management Team is a bit like Freo’s coaching staff, setting and adjusting the game plan as necessary, with the CMT leader playing a similar role to the senior coach,” says Ray.

“Other members of the CMT are much like the specialist coaches, focusing of their area of influence and following, in our case, the PEARLS principle of priorities - people first then environment, assets, reputation, livelihood and services.

“Everyone else involved is similar to the players, using a mix of skill and hard work to ensure we meet our goals.

“Succinct communication is crucial. People need to know relevant information and be clear on what is expected of them. Anything more than that can be a distraction.”

Of course, more insights were shared and actions challenged than mentioned here, but the point is that teaming-up went beyond food for thought.

Ray says the cross-industry collaboration was a unique and valuable opportunity that opened the door for innovation and inspired improvement.

Teaming up

Ideas exchange: Dockers coach Ross Lyon catches up with Woodsiders Michael Robinson and Vince Connolly.

22 trunkline | Q2 2017

It’s said that when planets align, things come together in a positive way.

Theo Anderson, general manager of organisational development in People and Global Capability (P&GC), believes the timing was similarly auspicious for coaching to become a leadership imperative.

Coaching is integral to performance excellence and higher-performing teams being developed at Woodside.

So the company is formalising a strategy to integrate various coaching activities across the business.

In Operations, for example, Roland Hamp was appointed as general manager Production high performance coaching in Q3 2016.

Roland has been working with Mary Matthews, learning and development senior adviser, and a working group to help make coaching an important part of Production.

Reservoir Management and Drilling and Completions have been on similar journeys and rolled out coaching in recent years.

“Coaching is fundamental to continuous improvement,” says Theo.

Senior management also recognised that sustainable improved performance required a step-change in the organisation. Finding solutions for today’s challenges and taking advantage of opportunities requires a different leadership style than was previously successful.

“The idea is that as the Company grows, so too should its leadership team and their approach,” Theo explains.

“So the Company has seized the opportunity to build on all this aggregate enthusiasm.

“The timing was right and planets aligned.”

In the future, successful companies will be more collaborative. Coaching will help people to become more enabled and better exercise their potential in this “new world”.

Coaching is a leadership skill that facilitates the acceleration of both the performance and development of staff.

Improved performance involves enabling people to be more effective in their current roles. Coaching facilitates their development over time by helping them achieve new competencies.

Mary says data collected by P&GC over the past 10 years illustrates that we needed to enhance our leaders’ coaching skills to enable our people. 

“This will lead to enhanced and sustained performance,” she says.

“Coaching is one of the most important leadership styles we need our leaders to demonstrate.”

Roland adds: “We recognise we are on an improvement journey and have achieved a lot already with the leadership styles we have at Woodside.

“But if we want to go further we’ll need to adjust and adapt those leadership styles to enable us to get to the next level.

“Leadership style is moving away from directive and pace-setting – from a command-control and rigid hierarchy to something more fluid where relationships are less hierarchical and collaborative and ultimately transformational.”

Although a few external coaches have been commissioned to support the process, it is considered that the best coaching experience is an internal journey steered and supported by in-house coaches and leaders.

It’s game on for coachingCoach class: Above, Roland Hamp, general manager high performance coaching, and coaching psychologist David Webster discuss coaching skills at a leadership workshop. Overpage, top: Theo Anderson and Hendrik Snyman are promoting coaching as integral to performance excellence; below, David Webster believes ‘millennials’ have brought new expectations to the workplace.

23

With this in mind, a structure has been established under a steering group which includes, among others, senior vice president Production Jeroen Buren and senior vice president Performance Excellence Hendrik Snyman.

P&GC has already built the first part of a “leaders as coaches” training program.

The second part is underway, together with other tools such as short videos to help spread the message.

And Woodside coaching champions have been appointed throughout Production to support implementation.

“Instead of training people and leaving them to their own devices, they’re going to get support from our leaders,” says Roland.

The first two coaching champions appointed were production excellence champions Marc Senders and Shannon Byers, and others have followed.

Hendrik is supporting the program as the coaching champions will also be rolling out Performance Excellence (PE) tools because he sees a synergy between coaching and PE.

“Engaging people in a coaching manner enables and empowers them to see the problem and solution for themselves, which creates ownership and empowerment,” he says.

“I am always amazed at how far people can go if you believe in them and clear the way for them.”

How do organisations today engage and enable their people in a meaningful way?

It used to be straightforward.

Managers told their staff what to do and they expected their wishes to be carried out.

But "times are a’changing" and coaching psychologist David Webster believes it’s the children of the Baby Boomers called “The Millennials” (also known as Generation Y) who are changing the workplace with their different expectations.

“I think a lot of organisations are grappling with how to engage their people, especially when millennials have a higher expectation for their workplaces — not just to be productive and to be well paid but also to be exciting, innovative and creative places where they can retain a work-life balance,” says David.

“That’s some trick to pull off in organisations where generally the balance has been the other way – where the employers have been in control of that relationship. I think things are shifting so how do employers engage their people in a meaningful way?”

David, managing director of the Centre for Teams, a UK-based coaching psychology practice specialising in developing sustainable performance, has coached and consulted with senior leaders to develop and supervise business performance coaches for the past two decades.

He has been working with Woodside’s

senior leaders to increase their leadership capability to bring about change, improve business performance and enhance their own wellbeing.

He says he’s been impressed with the thinking that he’s encountered at the company.

“I think Woodside is being challenging in its thinking, and the idea that the organisation needs to be more collaborative, and to accelerate its performance and be innovative,” he says.

David says the very best organisations are characterised by “high-quality feedback going in every direction – up down and across”.

He continues: “I see people asking questions rather than believing that they have the answers already; teams engaged with each other in a different way, realising they can’t get performance in a traditional top-down, control fashion and that they do need to collaborate.

"And the key in executive teams is understanding the interdependences of parts of the organisation.”

It means employees need to both support and challenge each other because if one part of the organisation is affected, so are others.

“That means you have to pay attention to what’s going on in the whole, rather than in just one bit,” he notes.

“That drives a need to collaborate and be curious as to what’s going on over the fence.”

Driving change

24 trunkline | Q2 2017

On the surface, it is a simple sports picture – a head of state handing over the tournament trophy to the captain of the winning team.

In reality, it is much more than that. The 1995 photo of Springboks skipper Francois Pienaar accepting rugby union’s highest honour, the Webb Ellis Cup, from South African President Nelson Mandela captures a milestone in race relations. That moment – with Mandela wearing a number 6 jersey, just like Francois, and resting his hand on the sportsman’s shoulder – helped heal a nation still hurting from the impact of the racially divisive apartheid system.

So you could excuse Francois if he spoke grandly about the part he played in this achievement, a moment widely regarded as transcending sport.

Instead, Woodsiders listening to him talk about this and more at a company leadership session were struck by his humility.

It was the word that loomed largest when attendees were asked to define, after hearing Francois’s keynote address, the

attributes of a good leader. Vision and integrity also featured strongly.

“I am still surprised by how understated Francois was and by how much he elevated caring as a leadership characteristic,” said one attendee. “He really let his story speak for itself.”

“If you have a clear vision, humility, clear expectations and you choose your role players well, then there will be a great chance of success,” said another.

“Francois mentioned a couple of times how they were very clear in their expectations of each other and they held each other to account.”

The address, which included insights into Mandela’s leadership as well as Francois' own approach, drew about 400 of Woodside’s leaders and aspiring leaders in Perth and was viewed, via live link, by several more in Karratha.

It was followed by a panel session in which Francois was joined by former footballer Matthew Pavlich, the Fremantle Dockers’ longest-serving captain, and our chief technology officer Shaun Gregory, whose team is focused on innovative problem-solving.

While their backgrounds and remits were widely different, there was commonality in how they talked about leadership… thinking big and being bold, high performance and teamwork; the importance of doing the right thing, even when it’s not easy.

“The session reinforced humility, respect, passion, openness, strength, confidence and teamwork plus finding and testing your limits as key to leadership success,” was one comment.

“It’s always good to focus on the value of living your values,” was another.

And the teamwork message was further reinforced when Francois spent the afternoon at a rugby coaching clinic for children.

The clinic, run by Woodside in collaboration with the Road Safety Western Force, drew hundreds of young fans aged between five and 17.

The youngsters not only got to meet Francois but also members of the Western Force team, making for a fun few hours of skill building and fun.

Taking the leadLeading role: Francois Pienaar shares his thoughts on high performance.

25

Woodside again welcomed students from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Chemical Engineering Practice School in Q2, extending our relationship with one of the world’s outstanding universities.

It’s the second consecutive year Woodside has hosted the School, with seven of its students spending eight weeks in April and May split between Perth and Karratha.

Data science and process engineering combined to set the students six projects that were as relevant as possible for both company and students. Two projects were “spin-offs” from last year’s projects.

“This year, the students’ focus was the Operations side of the business, and the challenges that Operations faces – both currently and in the future,” explains Lauchlan Wallace, data science manager.

“The students helped us explore opportunities to improve production with some experimental ideas which, if they worked, we knew would hold some value.

“These students provided the perfect opportunity for us to dip our toe into the water and test what this value might be.”

Principal process engineer Derek Hodges adds: “Importantly, there was very close collaboration between data science and process knowledge and

those together make a very powerful tool.”

One phenomenon the students examined was “slumping” – the colloquial term for process temperatures on the LNG trains suddenly falling.

Some groundwork using data science already had been put into this area at Woodside over the past couple of years, and the MIT ran a trial to determine whether an hypothesis that slumping could be predicted was correct.

“We temporarily installed a new pressure gauge in the Karratha Gas Plant to record some new data in the Main Cryogenic Heat Exchanger over two days,” says Derek.

“This enabled the students to help us understand a long-standing phenomenon which has prevented us increasing production by one per cent.

“In a very short space of time we went from a well-defined potential idea to a position where we could definitively see value. We can now work toward installing a ‘wireless’ measurement there permanently, building on other infrastructure.”

In other work the students undertook, the value has been mapped out and it simply remains to do the engineering work to complete the project, he adds.

One such problem was how to lower power margins safely during LNG

production so Woodside can sell, rather than use, the gas.

“The students concluded that under certain circumstances power margins could be reduced, and under other circumstances, the margins should be returned to the previous level,” says Derek.

At the conclusion of their projects, they presented to Engineering and the Executive on what they had achieved.

“We’re fortunate to have companies allow us to use their premises as an industrial classroom,” said Professor Alan Hatton, program director at the School.

“It gives the students the chance to get really immersed and understand what industrial life is like.”

The students themselves said they were pleased with how welcoming and helpful Woodsiders were.

Theresa Cloutier said: “Everyone was very patient in explaining to us things about the plant we didn’t understand.”

Student Max Nagarajan said he arrived with the idea that oil and gas was very much “old technology” and was surprised how committed Woodside was to exploring new technologies to make existing plants more efficient.

MIT station director Professor Brian Stutts said he hoped the relationship between MIT and Woodside would continue to prosper.

Six of the best for MIT

Back to Massachusetts: Students from MIT, led by Professor Brian Stutts, far left, spent a month at Woodside, splitting their time between Perth and Karratha.

26 trunkline | Q2 2017

Students from Myanmar and Timor-Leste returned to their universities earlier this year after enjoying a stimulating summer working at Woodside.

Getting experience in a real-world environment and finding out the applications of the theories they learnt at university were among the benefits they cited.

The students, four from Myanmar and three from Timor-Leste, participated in the Professional Development Program (PDP) established by Woodside for both countries to support the company’s growing activity in each.

The programs are integrated with Woodside’s Summer Vacation Program and offer similar benefits, such as support by a graduate buddy and technical mentor, plus the opportunity to be assessed for a position on the company’s Graduate Development Program.

“The students get the chance to gain valuable technical, business and career development skills through their time at Woodside and then take those learnings back to their home countries where they can stimulate enthusiasm among their peers,” explains Nicole Magill, acting resourcing team lead.

This summer, seven students got the chance to work in areas they are studying at universities in Australia and overseas, and the Timor-Leste students had morning tea with chief executive officer Peter Coleman and Timor-Leste’s

Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources, Alfredo Pires.

Peregrina Gusmao Amaral was one of the three students from Timor-Leste.

After attending one of the country’s Jesuit-run high schools, Peregrina says she began to “think outside the box” about how she could improve herself.

“I had to learn more because in our environment, we did not experience the different cultures and skills that I have while studying in Australia,” she explained.

Since then, she’s stretched herself in many directions.

She has since worked for the International Labor Organisation, studied information management at a university in Java, and worked for the International Organisation for Migration.

Currently studying IT at Charles Darwin University in Darwin, a PDP scholarship brought Peregrina to Perth for the summer.

“I got the chance to work with Information Management and Information Solutions and Services after I said I wanted to learn how to present my ideas in a structured way,” she said.

“I learned a lot about myself and Woodside as well.

“I’ve also learnt some key takeways to share with my government on how to provide an effective vacation program.”

Nang Nge Nge Phoo is the inaugural Woodside Myanmar postgraduate scholarship holder.

A doctor with a track record of community work in Myanmar, she studied a Masters in Public Health at the University of WA and graduated in March.

Over the summer, Nang worked in the corporate health team helping to draft musculoskeletal risk management guidelines, and other projects.

“The work was very interesting and people I worked with have been very supportive in helping me understand Woodside procedures,” she says.

San Aung’s first degree was in electronic engineering from Myanmar.

She has a Masters in computing science degree from Thailand and then came to Australia to work in the Bass Strait as a field engineer.

She’s completed a Masters at Curtin University and is now working on a PhD in petroleum engineering.

At Woodside, San worked in Reservoir Management in work closely associated with her PhD studies.

“It’s been challenging and exciting since day one and I really like it,” San says.

Applications for the 2017/18 Myanmar and Timor-Leste PDPs open on 17 July, and close 11 August.

World classWork experience: Students from Myanmar and Timor-Leste take a break from the Professional Development Program with Woodsiders Stephen Munday and Nicole Magill (fourth and sixth from left).

27

A game of cards is not an activity typically enjoyed at Woodside Plaza but there’s a time and place for such novelty.

That was the thinking of cross-functional volunteers who wanted to maximise the engagement by participants in the introduction to the industry training course.

They didn’t stop with shuffling cards, either.

Setting up a new company, designing a strategy house, issuing media releases and presenting to the “Board” were other activities they worked into the training.

The result?

Substantial improvement and a mass of engaged participants.

“At the start, we aimed to improve the training by simply adding a Woodside touch,” notes asset manager Kimberly Walpot, who was also the course host.

“But we soon realised we could revolutionise the way the training is delivered, and the idea for ‘The Quest’ oil and gas strategy game evolved.”

The introduction to the oil and gas course is part of Woodside’s three-year Graduate Development Program to give newly hired graduates class-style training about the exploration and production of hydrocarbons.

In Q1 2017, it took on a new look.

In a true display of collaboration, Developments, Operations and People and Global Capability designed The Quest and two days of training around it.

The objective was to create a compelling investment opportunity by establishing an oil and gas company guided by a clear strategy and underpinned by a world-class resource base that is positioned for future growth.

The graduates were divided into 13 teams with randomly assigned chief executive officers and executive committees.

“Each team was tasked with setting up their own company, deciding their vision and mission and presenting a

Woodside-style strategy house to the audience,” explains Kimberly.

“The quality of their corporate strategy and branding influenced their starting share price which would fluctuate during the day depending on the team’s response to a variety of challenges.”

Then, it was time to deal all the teams in.

The game aimed to simulate each stage of the oil and gas value chain from exploration to appraisal to development.

But with cards stacked against them at various stages, the participants had to respond quickly to challenges and opportunities – from cyclones to technology disruptions and oil price changes.

At the end of the day, the teams presented their proposals to the “Board” and requested funding for most promising developments.

The second day contained more interactive presentations and a journey through the LNG production process.

Operations trainer Colin Elliott notes that involving the audience in the activities was a key to success of the course.

“We wanted to give participants a taste of what work and life on an asset really looks like,” Colin says.

“This is why we replicated a full site muster in the room.”

And afterwards, the teams participated in a simulated life boat evacuation to better understand the challenges of offshore emergency management.

The two days of intense challenges and activities concluded when the Boards’ decisions were revealed and the winners were announced.

Logistics graduate Emma Lockwood was the winning team’s chief executive officer.

The key to success?

“We played our cards right because we created a clear vision at the start of the challenge,” was Emma’s assessment.

“In spite of the changing business environment, we continued to make decisions that were aligned with our vision and communicated our progress to stakeholders at each stage of the challenge.”

A helping handto get on deck

Ace up their sleeve: The winning team focused on a clear strategy and a robust link to local communities. Bwora means “inside” in the Noongar language.

Poster parade: WoW supporters Emma Doyle, Sandra Daws, Matthew Brierley and Shannon O’Rourke showcase how they will be bold for change for International Women’s Day.

One pillar of the Women of Woodside’s strategy is “Man Up.” It focuses on increasing the number of men proactively supporting gender diversity and inclusion.

Maintenance capability manager and acting general manager Matthew Brierley, who leads Man Up, says: “Initially it can be difficult to call out unconscious biases that we accept in our everyday lives, but we need to do so to take more steps towards positive change."

Seventy seven Woodside men are current WoW members, accounting for just 2% of the group’s membership.

“The current level of active participation by men in WoW shows that Woodside still has a long way to go,” Matthew says.

Man Upof strategy, governance and commercialisation, was a WoW committee member in 2011 and is still supportive of the group.

He’s proud of the improvements Woodside continues to make regarding gender diversity.

“Woodside has implemented reasonable data-driven targets supported at the highest leadership levels, leading to the recruitment of 50/50 gender diversity in our graduate program,” Shannon notes.

Maintenance has also moved to 50/50 gender diversity in the annual recruitment of graduating apprentices.

Shannon says: “Ensuring this pipeline is sustainable for the next generations is our next challenge.”

“We need to stand together regardless of gender and have discussions that promote positive and powerful outcomes.”

Gender diversity discussions create opportunities to question gender stereotypes and provide space for other conversations to occur.

“As Man Up matures, it can be used to explore and provide support for other issues such as fatherhood and mental health,” says Matthew.

He notes that Woodside’s future competitive advantage will include attracting a gender diverse talent pipeline by having a diverse and inclusive workplace.

Shannon O’Rourke, senior manager

28 trunkline | Q2 2017

“Be a bigger part of it.”

That’s the theme chosen by Women of Woodside (WoW) for 2017.

It means speak up about what you need to give your best. Advocate when you see someone else needing support.

Accept and accommodate others to enable them to give their best.

“We want Woodsiders to sign up to be members of WoW, attend an event, join in the discussions and participate in at least one WoW initiative,” say WoW’s co-chairs, Emma Doyle and Sandy Sibenaler.

Though it is their current rallying call, the sentiment behind “Be a bigger part of it” has been evident since WoW’s humble beginnings.

Founded in 2003 by women in senior leadership roles, WoW was created to prompt diversity discussions and provide member support.

It has since evolved to take in women and men of varied age groups, roles and skillsets to promote gender diversity and inclusion through education, stakeholder engagement, events and campaigns.

And it is backed by Woodside’s leadership at the highest level.

In April, our chief executive officer Peter Coleman became WoW’s executive sponsor, an extension of his commitment to providing an inclusive workplace.

“Conversation at all levels of the company is important because it allows us to challenge the status quo and not

Share the WoW factor

29

Since its launch in October 2016, Woodside’s Spectrum community has worked to progress workplace inclusion for people who identify as LGBTI+.

Culture, inclusion and diversity manager Claire Swyny notes: “The Spectrum community has quickly established a strong, positive profile. They’ve taken some fantastic steps forward in the area of LGBTI+ inclusion through structured activities and events based on a robust strategic focus.”

Dane Renner, management of change lead and winner of the Pride in Diversity 2017 Network Leader of the Year award, is proud of how the Spectrum community has progressed at Woodside.

“This award was the result of the hard work and passion of the entire Spectrum community,” says Dane.

“Spectrum was recognised for its unique strategy and approach to engaging staff, as the focus is not just on events but also our messaging.”

An example of this was the recent Rainbow Laces campaign, which encouraged Woodsiders to show visible

support for LGBTI+ inclusion by wearing rainbow-coloured laces.

“Rainbow laces were a fun and easy way to get everyone involved, particularly as we rolled the campaign out to assets first,” says Dane.

Graduate commercial analyst Georgia McClanachan says: “This created interest for those who had not yet received laces, and people began sharing the safety moments Spectrum created about LGBTI+ inclusion.”

According to research, employees are up to 30% more productive at work when they can be open about their personal lives.

“We want Woodsiders to join Spectrum to share values moments with others, and to be visible supporters, known as allies, in the workplace,” Georgia adds.

Claire urged everyone to support Spectrum’s work.

“We’re all creators of an inclusive environment and Woodside’s progress in the LGBTI+ arena hinges on the contributions of everyone who wants to experience the benefits of a diverse and inclusive workplace.”

accept past norms as future standard practice,” says Sandy, a materials manager.

To initiate change through honest conversation, WoW is driving a number of initiatives.

PoW WoWs (People of Woodside talking about Women of Woodside) provide an opportunity for WoW members to bring non-members to an event at which they can learn more about the importance of gender diversity, how it benefits them and what they can do to realise those benefits.

Connectors Conversations are guided conversations happening at the SVP lead team level, providing an opportunity for people to test their thoughts in a safe place.

Research shows that teams with balanced gender diversity produce faster results that are sustained for longer periods, benefiting individuals, teams and the company as a whole.

“We need many people advocating to increase awareness about the benefits of gender diversity at work,” says Emma, an area planning team lead.

“WoW’s aim is to reach a critical mass of understanding the benefits so that diversity initiatives are welcomed throughout the company.”

WoW is also encouraging gender diversity in the talent pipeline within and outside of Woodside, by actively highlighting technical career paths.

“WoW created a STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) in Schools program that empowers Woodsiders to volunteer at schools and address gender career stereotypes," explains Sandy.

"In Term 1 alone we reached 816 students.”

STEM in Schools provides role models to students that challenge career gender stereotypes.

Emma notes: “We want to share our passion for STEM with all students, but we can uniquely contribute by sharing female role models."

So how do Woodsiders ensure they are being a bigger part of it this year?

Simply sign up to become a WoW member and get involved in a program such as STEM in Schools or take a colleague along to a diversity and inclusion discussion.

Above all, keep the conversation going.

Spectrum

broadens

Under the rainbow: Members of the Spectrum committee celebrate diversity beneath the new art installation in Fremantle.

30 trunkline | Q2 2017

Woodside’s Karratha- based staff were able to enjoy the fruits of co-operation between the company and St John in May and prepare themselves for winter at the same time.

St John had surplus flu vaccinations, and decided to offer it to a few business partners.

“Our name was suggested for the donation following recent engagements

we’d had with St John,” explains senior health and safety adviser Libby Giroud.

“As we already had our flu vaccination program locked in for the Woodside Plaza, we decided to make the arrangements available in Karratha.”

“Administration and supply of the vaccinations were offered to us at no cost but it was decided that anyone taking up the offer would be asked for a gold coin donation.”

“These donations were given to St John to help fund its First Aid Schools Program, which enables students aged seven and older to learn vital first aid skills.”

Libby says the flu vaccinations were made available to all staff on the Burrup, with hundreds of employees and contractors taking up the opportunity.

St John’s own medical staff conducted the vaccinations at Pluto, Karratha Gas Plant, King Bay Supply Base and the Burrup Materials Facility laboratory.

“This was a fantastic opportunity for those living and working on the Burrup to take part in a preventative health measure and to contribute donations to a worthy cause at the same time,” Libby says.

“It was a win-win situation and a great example of the corporate sector working in partnership with the not-for-profit sector in order to benefit the community.”

The initiative is just one program bringing Woodside and St John closer together.

Health and Safety is also working closely with St John to continuously improve Woodside’s approach to the way it manages first-aid provisions and training.

Giving it their best shotStarting young: Above, St John ambulance officers explain to attentive children the importance of first aid; below, children get hands-on learning about first aid kits.

31

Helping youngsters get seafaring experience and helping the maritime industry access more skilled participants – those are the twin aims behind Woodside’s support of the Leeuwin Ocean Adventure Foundation.

In addition to the “Marine Career Pathway Program”, which includes the marine scholarships for 14 to 25 year olds and the crew exchange programs, Woodside sponsors a 12-month cadetship program on Sailing Training Ship (STS) Leeuwin II.

Marine assurance manager Zubin Bhada explains that our involvement with the Leeuwin Foundation is part of the company’s commitment to encourage the growth of young Australian seafarers in the marine industry.

“Other than its floating production, storage and offloading (FPSO) facilities, Woodside doesn’t own and operate ships of its own and so is not able to provide a training ground for these youngsters. So this is an opportunity for us to ‘bottom feed’ the industry,” Zubin says.

“It means young sailors can expand their curriculum vitae, and hopefully act as a springboard for other things.

“There’s no direct return to Woodside in the short term; but it will help an industry of which we’re a part for years to come.

“And the company expanding its international footprint is another reason why we need to be capable of filling positions wherever they occur.”

Zubin says the cadetships constitute a mix of practical and theoretical experiences.

Callum Hindhaugh, Bradley Moyle and Scott Suffling are the three 2017 Woodside-sponsored cadets selected from the Leeuwin’s successful volunteer program for the 12-month Woodside Leeuwin Scholarship Program.

As part of their commitment to the program, they must complete a number of sailing days and classes at TAFE, in Fremantle, over the winter while the Leeuwin undergoes its annual refit.

As Trunkline went to press, the cadets were half way into the program. They have successfully completed the first external studies component and gained their Australian Maritime Safety Authority Certificate of Safety Training.

At the end of the program they will be eligible for certificates in Master (under 24m) vessels, Marine Engine Driver (MED 2), Certificate of Medical Fitness as well as hours of sea service, relevant work experience and on-the-job training.

Captain Sarah Robinson, Master of the STS Leeuwin II, said the cadets were progressing well through their task books and required shipboard learning while accumulating their acquired sea time.

“This was an opportunity that none of these individuals would have been able to afford if it weren’t for the generous support of Woodside,” she said.

“We have had a lot of interest from other volunteers hoping to take up the cadetship role in future.”

Cher Gibellini, corporate affairs adviser communities, says Woodside has provided young people throughout WA with the opportunity for personal and professional growth through Leeuwin youth leadership scholarships since 2005.

“In 2015, the opportunity arose to modify the company’s support, to better align it to industry’s need to provide more sea time and development opportunities for young people who have an aspiration for a career in the marine environment or maritime industry,” Cher says.

Carol Shannon, CEO of the Leeuwin Ocean Adventure Foundation, says the Woodside-Leeuwin relationship has matured since it began in 2000.

“The relationship is as unique and as powerful as the environment we work in,” Carol notes.

“Woodside’s ongoing commitment has put Leeuwin on the map as a unique youth training provider.”

Tall order

Sail power: Marine assurance manager Zubin Bhada with Leeuwin cadets Callum Hindhaugh on his right, and Scott Suffling and Brad Moyle on his left.

This is where Woodsiders discover a little bit more about their colleagues – and what they’ve been getting up to outside work hours.

Think of it as Trunkline’s version of the water cooler.

Because whether it’s satisfying a passion for a sport, an unusual hobby or doing good deeds in the community, Woodside’s employees and contractors tend to live life to the full. As a result, they often have interesting stories or experiences to recount.

If that sounds like you or a colleague and you think it should be shared with the Woodside community, give us a call or drop us a line.

random discoveries

32 trunkline | Q2 2017

Bringing home the Cup

Woodside completed a successful attendance at Noongar Wellbeing and Sports (NWS) Corporate Cup in April, finishing in top spot.

A young Woodside Warriors 1 team narrowly beat the Decmil Destroyers to claim main prize, with the Woodside Warriors 2 side finishing fourth.

The winning team of Kailea Drummond, Jasmine Bin Omar, Stacey Loveridge, Deanne Bolton, Madison Edwards and Dylan Wallam received a trophy and a signed Fremantle Dockers jersey.

Team organiser Michelle Miljkovic says the young team did extremely well against competitors much more experienced than themselves.

The Woodside Warriors 2 side comprised Daniel Hamilton, Isobel Holley, Cheetahra Mitchell, Jasmine Corbett, Delene Jones and Jana Boffey.

The NWS works in partnerships to build the holistic health and wellbeing of Aboriginal people living in Noongar country through the promotion of sport, active recreation, healthy lifestyles and connection to culture.

Woodside has been involved since the Corporate Cup began in 2014.

The events are based on traditional Indigenous games.

For example, traditionally, Borna Jokee involved throwing blunted spears at

moving human targets to perfect skills in spear throwing and spear dodging. In the NWS games, however, a soft ball replaced spears.

“It was a fun but educational afternoon filled with our culture’s history,” says Dylan Wallam.

“The thing I enjoyed the most was playing each of the games our ancestors created.”

Jasmine Bin Omar says: “It was a great opportunity to spend time with our supervisors and other trainees and to be outside playing sport.

“I most enjoyed playing the dodgeball and rugby games . . . and taking away the trophy afterwards was even better!”

33

Weekend Riders

BMWs, Ducatis, Harley-Davidsons, Suzukis, Triumphs, Hondas, KTMs . . . there’s no lack of diversity in Woodside’s Motorcycle Group.

The group started a few years ago when a couple of bike riders arranged a weekend ride.

In time, more names – Woodside colleagues, their friends, family and

contractors – were added to the list as they became aware of the Sunday rides and to date, 63 people have expressed interest.

A Sunday social ride is organised every couple of months or so, and the group says newcomers are most welcome.

“For me, the rides are about camaraderie and having a chat and a laugh but they’re also about the scenery which can be stunning,” says onshore delivery superintendent Milan Kovac.

Stephen Standley, regulatory maintenance project lead, mentions the fragrances that emanate from the countryside – something you can’t appreciate driving in a vehicle with windows up.

“They can be quite incredible in spring or after rains,” he says.

Dwellingup, Toodyay and York are among the most popular destinations

“An average ride usually has between six and eight riders,” explains Milan.

“Our longest is an 1100km ride to Denmark on a two-day, one night ride,” says Stephen.

The shortest? A lap around the Swan River before adjourning to breakfast.

Indeed, food is what the social rides are all about, joke Milan and Stephen.

“We eat bacon sandwiches, bacon and egg sandwiches, bacon, egg and tomato sandwiches and drink lots of tea and coffee and chat about the world,” says Stephen.

More seriously, they also raised money for the Ride to Conquer Cancer in 2013.

Milan stresses the rides are purely social, with no hint of competition or racing and a big emphasis on safety.

Their next ride is slotted for 20 August. As usual, the meeting time is 7.30am, the expected time back is early afternoon.

Contact Milan or Stephen to learn more.

Busy bees

They’re busy bees – at work and at home.

Away from Woodside, Briannon Coppen, Tania Lawrence and Roland Hamp share beekeeping as a hobby.

The three apiarists love their pastime and say the occasional stings are an occupational hazard they try to avoid.

And they’re not just in it for the honey.

“Once you start researching them, you discover that bees are the most amazing little creatures,” says Briannon, a campaign planner in Production.

“Bees have an answer for everything. I fell in love with them.”

For Roland, general manager high performance coaching in Production, beekeeping runs in the family.

“My grandfather kept bees and so I have many childhood memories of watching him manage and maintain up to 20 hives, deal with swarms in spring and extracting honey,” he says.

Roland’s hives are on a property in the South West, while Tania and Briannon’s are on their homes outside metropolitan Perth.

“I wanted a hive but there’s a long waiting list so I decided to get a wild swarm from York,” says Tania, senior manager global integration.

She needed an experienced hand to help and found Briannon.

“It was as we were driving to York that we discovered we both worked at Woodside,” she says.

Tania lives in the hills on a 2ha block adjoining a national park,

where her bees forage.

Briannon lives nearby and started beekeeping to fertilise the 100 or more fruit trees on her property.

She now rescues swarms and relocates them to more appropriate locations.

“It started out as word of mouth and I ended up getting about a dozen calls a day, so we set up a Facebook page — Bree’s Bees — to rescue and relocate swarms,” she says.

random discoveries

34 trunkline | Q2 2017

Flying the flag in Yangon

It’s about 6000km, as the crow flies, from Fremantle to Yangon.

But the tyranny of distance has not diminished the enthusiasm of Woodside’s Myanmar-based Fremantle Dockers fans for their AFL team.

In fact, if anything, it has been a catalyst for them inadvertently expanding the supporter base.

Dan Clery, our Myanmar country manager, and Phil Germain, the finance manager, are the key flagbearers.

The pair were among the first of our expatriates to settle in Yangon and, as both were avid Freo fans, locally hired staff quickly became caught up in their enthusiasm for the team.

Now most of the people in office not only knows of but actively cheers on Freo.

They also cheer on Dan and Phil, who have become regular representatives for Myanmar in the annual AFL Asian Championships.

Two down, four to go

Sarah Blyde is ticking off her bucket list of six World Marathon Majors after completing the New York Marathon in 2015 and then, in April, adding the Boston Marathon to her tally.

“I have no timeline, but it would be nice to add London, Berlin, Tokyo and Chicago one day,” says Sarah, a second year graduate working in Subsea and Pipelines.

The Boston race was completed not without drama after she suffered increasing nausea and had to divert to a medical tent only 10km from the finish line – at aptly named Heartbreak Hill.

After a 30-40 minute stay, she returned to the course and completed the race, though her time naturally suffered badly.

For Sarah, a petroleum engineering graduate, long-distance running is in the family.

Both parents have completed marathons

and Sarah caught the running bug at an early age in her native New Zealand.

Her first marathon was in Rotorua in 2013; she completed New York in a stellar time of 3hrs 19 minutes.

“I was pretty stoked,” she recalls, adding that joining a field of 50,000 and running in front of one million spectators lining the route made the race memorable.

Her time was fast enough to guarantee her entry into the prestigious Boston race – the world’s oldest annual marathon. This was Boston’s 121st race and it boasted another big field of runners (30,000) and another big live audience (500,000).

Sarah has now run five marathons and reports that finishing the 42km is largely about overcoming mental barriers.

“The physical pain, including muscle stiffness and soreness, comes in the following days,” she says.

Principal assurance engineer Simon Hehir is a late

convert to the joys of photography, but he’s making up

for lost time. This is a recent example of his stunning

work – as well as proving oil and water don’t easily mix.

Simon created the scene at home. He propped up

a clear glass bowl, added water and a few drops of

olive oil then scattered some coloured plastic beads

underneath. Photography aficionados might like to

know he used a Nikon D5200 with a Nikon Micro Lens at

40mm, on f4.5 at 1/60th second exposure.

Check out more of Simon’s photos in the Woodside

Creative Collective Group on Yammer. And if you have

any photos you think are Final Frame material, we'd love

to hear from you.

final frame

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