Santos’ giant gas project off north Australia gets environmental nod

Australian energy player Santos has received authorization from the country’s National Offshore Petroleum Safety and Environmental Management Authority (NOPSEMA) to proceed with its gas project off the coast of Australia’s Northern Territory.

Thanks to NOPSEMA rubberstamping the environmental plan (EP) for the Barossa area development, Santos can move forward with its operated project. The project is expected to provide a new source of gas for the existing Darwin liquified natural gas (LNG) facility at Wickham Point.

The Barossa project encompasses gas and condensate production from six subsea wells, processing at a floating production, storage, and offloading (FPSO) facility, condensate export via tankers, and transport of natural gas via Gas Export Pipeline (GEP) to Darwin LNG, which will be tied into the existing Bayu-Undan pipeline.

Natural gas and condensate are set to be extracted from the Barossa field, located approximately 285 kilometers offshore north-northwest of Darwin. Greenlit in 2021, the project is a joint venture between Santos (50%), SK E&S (32.5%), and JERA (12.5%).

BW Offshore’s FPSO BW Opal, destined for the field, was named in February 2025. The 358-meter-long and 64-meter-wide FPSO is said to be one of BW’s largest.

Once in place at the Barossa field, the vessel will have a gas handling capacity of 850 million standard cubic feet per day and a design capacity of 11,000 barrels per day of stabilized condensate. The vessel’s contract is for a fixed 15-year period, with additional ten-year extension options.

Based on information on NOPSEMA’s website, FPSO hook-up and commissioning are scheduled to start in the first half of 2025, and are expected to take three months, followed by FPSO initial start-up. The associated activities are expected to last approximately four months.

Following start-up and ramp-up to full production, steady state production is planned to kick off in Q3 2025 and will continue for approximately 25 years.

In October 2024, the Australian energy giant confirmed that the project is over 82% complete and remains on track for production in the third quarter of 2025. The GEP to deliver gas from the field to Darwin LNG was recently completed.

Construction activities for the Darwin Pipeline Duplication are also underway, with Allseas’ pipelay barge completing nearshore construction activities for the project last month.