The approaches to Karratha will be marked by three existing spar buoys showing green lights and three new Tideland SB-285P fairway buoys, equipped with Tideland MaxLED-200 lanterns, showing yellow lights.

The SB-285P has a frame of marine grade stainless steel, while both the float and tower assemblies are rotationally moulded in UV stabilised, self  coloured polyethylene filled with expanded polystyrene. The float section contains individual units that can be easily removed in the event of a collision. There are no external corrodible parts and the buoys are corrosion resistant are have been deemed as unsinkable.

MaxLED-200 are extremely compact LED lanterns with a range in excess of 10 nautical miles (18.42km), despite being less than 30cm high and weigh only 4.76kg. They are constructed in corrosion resistant marine aluminium designed to withstand severe environments. Their long range and long service life mean that they are ideally suited for buoy mounting, beacons, offshore and other solar-powered operations.

Phase V of the LNG Terminal will be completed at Karratha, towards the end of 2008. It is part of the Woodside operated North West Shelf Venture, Australia’s largest resource project. Once finished, the fifth train will be similar in size and production capacity to the fourth train, which can produce 4.4m tons of LNG a year. This would boost Woodside’s total LNG production capacity on site to 16.3m tons a year.