Santos has announced that the BW Opal floating production, storage and offloading (FPSO) vessel has successfully received first gas to commence production operations.
The company reported that all six wells drilled in the Barossa gas field have intersected excellent reservoir quality.
It added that testing has been completed on five of the six wells, demonstrating outstanding flow capacity that exceeds pre-drill estimates, with an expected average potential well deliverability of around 300 million standard cubic feet (nine million cubic metres) per day.
The Northern Territory Environment Protection Authority has also renewed the Environment Protection Licence for the Darwin LNG facility, which will be fed by the Barossa field for the next two decades.
According to Santos, the BW Opal is, “one of the largest and most technically advanced FPSOs ever built”, with a 358-metre hull and gas handling capacity of 850 million standard cubic feet (25 million cubic metres) per day.
It is permanently located in the Barossa gas field, approximately 285 kilometres offshore from Darwin.
With the vessel now ready for start-up, Santos will recognise a lease liability of approximately $665 million and a right-of-use asset value of approximately $1.4 billion.
