Santos said first gas into the FPSO follows BW Opal achieving ready for start-up status on September 16, and the commencement of flow from the subsea wells.
This is a “major” milestone for Santos and its Barossa joint venture partners, PRISM Energy Australia, formerly SK E&S, and JERA Australia, in delivering the Barossa LNG project, the firm said.
Santos reported that all six wells drilled in the Barossa gas field have intersected “excellent” reservoir quality.
Testing has been completed on five of the six wells, demonstrating “outstanding” flow capacity that exceeds pre-drill estimates, with expected average potential well deliverability of around 300 million standard cubic feet per day.
According to Santos, this success underscores the “robust” capacity of the Barossa field to sustain long-term production.
Furthermore, the Northern Territory Environment Protection Authority has renewed the environment protection llicence for Darwin LNG, commencing September 19.
Santos noted this paves the way for first gas into, and start-up of, the Darwin LNG plant.
Darwin LNG
The FPSO is the production centrepiece of Santos’ Barossa LNG project and will be permanently located in the Barossa gas field approximately 285 kilometres offshore from Darwin in the Northern Territory of Australia.
It will feed the Darwin LNG plant for the next two decades.
The Darwin LNG plant launched operations in 2006, and the facility is now being readied for the next 20 years.
In 2023, the last LNG cargo produced from the Bayu-Undan gas field sailed from the Santos-operated LNG plant in Australia’s Northern Territory.
The final LNG shipment from Bayu-Undan left the 3.7 mtpa Darwin LNG plant at Wickham Point on November 11, 2023.
With RFSU of the BW Opal, Santos will recognise a lease liability of $665 million and a right-of-use asset value of $1.4 billion comprising the lease liability, FPSO pre-payment, and other direct costs, Santos noted.
The impact of the operating lease liability is expected to increase gearing 2.4 percentage points, Santos said.
Santos managing director and CEO Kevin Gallagher said, “RFSU for BW Opal marked the formal transition from project execution to production operations, following RFSU for the Darwin LNG plant upon completion of the life extension work scope and the commencement of production from the offshore subsea wells.
