Press release
Press release
Wood books AUD $3bn of contracts across Asia Pacific in record year
The Gippsland Basin supplies 60% of Australia’s South East coast gas demand, making its operational reliability a matter of national energy security. This artice highlights how a strong alliance model between Esso Australia and Wood ensures reliable, value-driven maintenance across critical late-life assets.
Every day in the Gippsland Basin, hundreds of Wood’s people – technicians, operators, planners, engineers and support staff - play a quiet but critical role in keeping Australia’s energy supply secure.
For just over a year, Wood has provided maintenance services and shutdown support across the Gippsland Basin Joint Venture’s (JV)* offshore assets in the Bass Strait and the Longford and Long Island Point facilities. The success of the Gippsland contract is grounded in an alliance model that brings Wood and the Gippsland Basin JV together as one team.
Since 2020, we’ve also upgraded and modified key infrastructure through a diverse portfolio of onshore and offshore minor modification and major enhancement work.
Together, these assets supply approximately 60% of the country’s South East coast demand, so optimising performance and production is an important priority.
For our people behind the tools and day to day operations, that responsibility is both a challenge and a source of deep pride.
Meet Adam Robbins - Contract Manager
In my role, I guide the alliance between Wood and Esso Australia, ensuring the contract runs safely, smoothly and that both teams remain closely aligned. I spend much of my time building and maintaining strong client relationships - something we see as essential to creating opportunities for the team and sustaining long term success within the Gippsland Basin contract.
Looking back on the first year, one of my proudest moments was being involved in the early concept discussions and bid activity that helped shape the contract from the outset. Operationally, seeing the contract start up on schedule - and hearing Esso Australia’s positive feedback on how smoothly it all came together - has been a standout highlight.
What I enjoy most day to day is finding and nurturing new opportunities for Wood within the Gippsland Basin JV. However, my greatest satisfaction comes from supporting people: helping grow local employment, opening doors for the regional workforce and seeing members of my team develop their skills and progress in their careers.
A workforce at the heart of Australian energy security
Over 330 our people - around 230 blue-collar and 100 white-collar - have become the engine room of safe and reliable operations, supporting the broader Esso Australia team across Gippsland’s mature assets.
Focused on optimising operational performance, local personnel are responsible for planning and executing maintenance programs with continuous improvement.
Enhancing reliability, production and uptime are core drivers that guide our teams every day - and they work hard to do that while continually reducing risk, learning from experience and supporting Esso Australia’s expectations. From day one in January 2025, we ensured a seamless transition into the contract, completing all planned shutdowns safely and continuing to deliver value without operational disruption.
“Working with Wood though 2025 has been rewarding as we have transformed the way we deliver maintenance and support, improving business performance through our Alliance. Wood leveraged existing capabilities and recruited additional personnel as we established the Alliance, allowing us to become fully operational in a shorter timeframe than planned.
Wood’s focus with Esso is providing routine and shutdown maintenance, integration plus early involvement has allowed optimisation of scope, improved planning, better safety outcomes, and significant improvement in productivity.
We have shared goals with Safety, Quality, Cost and Schedule KPIs, while transparency and trust have allowed us to constructively challenge each other to drive improvements through this year.
Wood has proven to be a flexible partner supporting our needs beyond maintenance with engineering, laboratory and operations services.”
Ben Harper
Maintenance Manager - Esso Australia
Meet Daiwen Qiu – Maintenance Engineer
I’ve been part of this alliance since day one, initially as Transition Lead where I oversaw the handover of scopes and assets from the previous contractor and helped build many of the systems and processes we still rely on today. Now, as a Maintenance Engineer, I work across all Esso Australia operated assets - managing budgets, controls and cost reporting to ensure everything tied to a dollar value runs smoothly.
My role means working closely with finance, commercial, project controls, supply chain and our coordinators so that what we report internally and to the client is accurate, transparent and truly reflects the great work our teams deliver.
What I enjoy most is the collaborative culture within the alliance; both Wood and Esso Australia are open about what they need and work together toward shared goals. Moving from a desk-based project controls role into this more integrated position has been a highlight - being out on site, seeing the scopes I helped plan come to life and continually learning from different disciplines brings a real sense of pride. Every day presents something new, and while that can be challenging, the growth and satisfaction that comes from overcoming those challenges is what keeps me motivated.
Unlocking smarter maintenance strategies across late-life assets
Gippsland is a basin with history - decades of production and thousands of hours of ongoing maintenance. A challenging mindset is needed to uncover optimal maintenance strategies that deliver reliability, at pace.
Our teams focus on compliance, prioritisation of critical maintenance and elimination of unnecessary work to strengthen operational performance, without compromising on safety. Every improvement is driven by the people closest to the job - those identifying smarter ways to work, tightening processes and making sure that what gets done is what truly matters.
By embracing rope access techniques to replace scaffold-heavy tasks, exploring drones for quick, efficient inspection and continuously challenging the status quo, we’re focused on finding better, safer, more efficient pathways forward.
Meet Clint Crow - Materials Expeditor Lead
In my role as Expediting Lead, I’m here to support our Material Coordinators across all sites. Day to day, that means keeping on top of purchasing requests, working closely with our suppliers and making sure everything runs smoothly and on time. I also look after company expenses, help manage budgets and support our Offshore Logistics team wherever I can.
Our contract covers all Esso Australia offshore assets along with the Longford and LIP gas plants - so there’s plenty to stay connected to.
What really makes the role meaningful for me is the relationships I’ve built. Whether it’s suppliers, the client or our own leadership teams, having those strong connections helps us stay proactive and make smart, cost-effective decisions. It also opens the door for continuous improvement and cost saving opportunities, which I’m always looking out for.
Working as one team with the client has made a real difference, and it’s given me the chance to introduce streamlined material tracking processes and support the rollout within procurement. Seeing how far we’ve come is something I’m genuinely proud of.
But honestly, the best part of my day is the people I work with. Building strong relationships and enjoying the team around me makes coming to work more rewarding - and that positive environment naturally shines through in the work we get done.
Bringing local employment to Victoria
We’re proud to have strengthened our local workforce across the Gippsland Basin, onboarding skilled people to support safe, reliable operations. This includes a major intake of new team members across both white-collar functions and the frontline, with around 170 trade and craft personnel joining us to deliver essential maintenance activities onsite.
Every individual adopts the on-site safety culture, is trained to operate in high-risk environments and equipped to contribute from day one. We’re grateful for the commitment they bring and the trust they place in us as they join the team.
Meet Amy Fraser – Trades Assistant
In my role, I’m responsible for keeping the daily time writing and billing process running smoothly for Longford Gas Plants. Each day I collect and validate data from our workers and supervisors - confirming hours worked, assigning them to the correct projects, Control Task Registers (CTRs) or Maintenance Work Orders (MWOs) and ensuring every team member is fully accounted for, including anyone on leave or training.
I also make sure the CTRs and MWOs being used are open and current, and I enter approved hours so they can be billed to the client. It’s a role that underpins both payroll and client billing, and without this work being accurate and on time, employees wouldn’t be paid correctly and the client wouldn’t have the transparency they need to track progress across the Longford plant.
Some of my biggest highlights have come from consistently meeting tight weekly deadlines, keeping Longford’s time writing and billing running seamlessly, and earning the trust of my peers and leaders. More recently, I’ve been offered a new position as Trainee Operator at Longford Gas Plants. The support from the team through that transition has meant a lot, and I feel incredibly fortunate to be part of such a strong network.
What I enjoy most is the team - at Longford we’re like a family, and that bond makes every day more enjoyable. I get a lot of satisfaction from keeping our ‘housekeeping’ to a high standard and knowing everything is in order. The support from the team through that transition has meant a lot, and I feel incredibly fortunate to be part of such a strong network.
Placing safety as a top priority
Safety remains the first consideration for every task carried out across the Gippsland Basin - from routine maintenance to shutdown execution. With large teams operating across offshore platforms and onshore gas plants, a strong embedded safety culture ensures that every person on site understands the risks of working in major hazard facility and the controls required to manage them.
This commitment to safety extends from permit to work processes to the way crews plan and prepare each job, ensuring hazards are identified early and work is executed with precision. Our people take a lot of care in how they approach their work, always looking for ways to strengthen safety, improve clarity and support each other.
The team’s continual focus on improving how work is carried out - enhancing communication and reinforcing safe behaviours - helps maintain consistent performance across mature, complex assets.
By placing people and safety at the centre of operations, Wood ensures reliable, disciplined delivery that protects workers, the environment and the critical infrastructure that powers Australia’s east coast.
Meet David Johnson – HSE Lead
In my role, I work between the Longford Gas Plants, offshore on one of the platforms, or at Long Island Point.
When I’m at Longford, our day begins with a 7:00am pre-start meeting alongside around 80 workers. The HSE role is fast-paced and constantly shifting; one moment I’m running inductions for new workers, the next I’m carrying out compliance inspections, delivering HSE training or providing advice to people in the field undertaking high-risk work.
Building positive relationships is essential, and for me that starts with our blue-collar workforce - the people on the tools who face risk every day
My role helps prevent or mitigate incidents before they occur, and by being there to respond when something does happen, including supporting the care and management of those injured. Being trusted and recognised as an integral part of keeping operations safe and productive has been one of the highlights of the contract for me.
What I enjoy most is running inductions for younger workers coming into the industry and then seeing them grow in confidence and capability as they progress.
Building a strong safety culture starts with strong relationships; when people feel supported, valued and recognised for doing the right thing, they want to stay and continue contributing to that culture. Keeping those bonds strong is how we attract and retain the best people at Wood.
A strong alliance built for what’s next
With a history of delivering modifications across both offshore platforms and onshore facilities, our people understand the history, complexities and nuances of Gippsland’s late-life infrastructure - knowledge that directly enhances safety, planning and execution today.
As the JV’s assets move closer to decommissioning, that combination of trust, experience and alignment becomes even more important. Our focus is simply to keep supporting with optimised, late-life maintenance that enhances production.
We’re proud to support the Gippsland Basin Joint Venture as a reliable, trusted maintenance and engineering partner.
*The Gippsland Basin Joint Venture is a 50-50 joint venture between Esso Australia Resources Pty Ltd and Woodside Energy Pty Ltd., operated by Esso Australia.
