Woodside Offshore Petroleum, together with joint venture participants Shell Development Australia and BHP Petroleum, are developing the Laminaria and Corallina Fields in the Timor Sea. The selected development concept is a floating monohull production facility supplied by subsea wells. This paper describes the approach taken by the Project team to deliver a diverless deepwater subsea facility which met the objectives of flexibility and maximised value whilst accommodating the evolving subsurface modelling process. A key element of the approach selected was the philosophy of Best Managed Risk (BMR), and the application of this philosophy to deal with reservoir uncertainties during the subsea design process is discussed. A second key element was the early definition of a "minimum facilities field layout" to which additional facilities could only be added if justified by a rigorous business case which demonstrated added value to the Project. The benefits of this strategy in allowing capital expenditure to be controlled in the face of significant uncertainties is discussed and supported by several examples.
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