Australian energy firm making headway in bringing giant gas project to life

July 18, 2024, by Melisa Čavčić

Australia’s energy giant Santos is continuing to forge ahead with the works required to start production from its natural gas development project off the coast of Australia, which will backfill Darwin LNG for up to two decades.

Following the final investment decision (FID) for the Barossa gas project in 2021, a $600 million investment in the Darwin LNG life extension and pipeline tie-in projects was kick-started. This development entails a floating production storage and offloading (FPSO) unit, subsea production wells, supporting subsea infrastructure, and a gas export pipeline tied into the existing Bayu-Undan to Darwin LNG pipeline to extend the facility life for around 20 years.

Multiple deals were handed out for the Barossa field development project. BW Offshore won the contract for the construction, connection, and operation of the FPSO for the Barossa field in March 2021 and hired Dyna-Mac in May to build the topside modules.

The FPSO was approximately 73% complete at the end of July 2023. Upon deployment, the 4.6 billion fixed 15-year FPSO contract, with additional ten-year extension options, will enable BW Offshore’s FPSO BW Opal to take care of natural gas production at the Australian field.

According to Santos, the Barossa gas project is 77% complete, with the Gas Export Pipeline (GEP) pipelay completed, all 16 modules installed onto the FPSO, and the third well of the six-well drilling program spudded in May. In addition, construction activities for the Darwin Pipeline Duplication are underway.

Kevin Gallagher, Santos’ Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, highlighted: “Our major projects continue to deliver to plan. I am very pleased that both the Barossa pipelaying activities and the installation of the modules onto the FPSO in Singapore are now complete.”

The Barossa field is located 300 kilometers offshore Darwin and the first gas is currently targeted for the first half of 2025. The project is owned by a joint venture between Santos (operator, 50%), SK E&S (32.5%), and JERA (12.5%).

“Our focus for 2024 is on continuing to drive the disciplined low-cost operating model across the business and the execution of the Moomba phase one CCS project, Barossa gas project, and Pikka project, whilst maintaining a strong balance sheet,” Gallagher added.