Sydney, 22 September (Argus) — Australian independent Santos has produced first gas at its $4.6bn Barossa gas field offshore Australia’s Northern Territory (NT).
The BW Opal floating production, storage and offloading (FPSO) vessel can commence operations, Santos said on 22 September, just over three months since the facility was connected to the Barossa project in June.
The six wells drilled at Barossa will each produce about 300mn cf/day (3.1bn m³/yr), Santos said, with outstanding flow capacity reported.
The backfill project to produce feedstock for the 3.7mn t/yr Darwin LNG (DLNG) terminal near NT capital Darwin replaces the Bayu-Undan field on the Australia-East Timor maritime border, which ended LNG production in late 2023.
The NT Environment Protection Authority has also approved a renewal of DLNG’s environment protection licence from 19 September, allowing DLNG to recommence exports using Barossa gas.
Barossa is about 285km north of Darwin. Operator Santos owns a 50pc stake, South Korean upstream firm SK E&S has a 37.5pc share and Japanese upstream firm Jera owns 12.5pc.
First gas guidance for Barossa was delayed and costs increased by up to $300mn after a lawsuit, which was dismissed in 2024, briefly paused development activities.
Abu Dhabi’s state-run Adnoc on 17 September withdrew from a consortium it had led looking to buy Santos in a $19bn takeover.
By Tom Major
