Published: April 2, 2018 |

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ConocoPhillips and its Barossa-Caldita joint venture partners SK E&S Australia and Santos have secured regulatory approval for the development of the Barossa gas and light condensate project located offshore about 300km north of Darwin, Northern Territory, Australia.

The approval from the Australia’s National Offshore Petroleum Safety and Environmental Management Authority (NOPSEMA) follows assessment of the environmental impacts and risks of petroleum activities over the 25-year life of the Barossa project.

Earlier, the Barossa-Caldita joint venture submitted its proposed Barossa field development plan which involves a permanently moored FPSO facility, subsea production system, supporting in-field subsea infrastructure in the Barossa field and a subsea gas export pipeline.

The FPSO facility will be equipped to separate and export the natural gas and condensate extracted from the field directly to offtake tankers in the Barossa offshore development area.

Additionally, the dry gas from the field is delivered to the existing Bayu-Undan to Darwin gas export pipeline, which feeds the onshore Darwin Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) facility located at Wickham Point, Northern Territory.

The project partners will now seek approval from for activity-specific Environment Plans.

Santos Managing Director and CEO Kevin Gallagher said: “Acceptance of the OPP gives us a level of regulatory comfort and the certainty we need to enter the Front End Engineering and Design (FEED) phase in the very near future.

“This is one of the major regulatory steps leading to offshore project development and petroleum production, and it reinforces Barossa’s position as the only gas supply source capable of meeting Darwin LNG’s timetable.”

ConocoPhillips is the operator of the Barossa-Caldita joint venture with 37.5 percent stake while other partners include Santos and SK E&S with 25 percent and 37.5 percent stakes respectively.

The Barossa offshore development area surrounds potential future phased development in the Caldita Field to the south in retention lease NT/RL6 and petroleum retention lease NT/RL5.

The development is expected have LNG and condensate production rates of approximately 3.7 million tons per annum and 1.5 million barrels per year, respectively. Production from the field is scheduled to commence in 2023.

Source: Energy Business Review

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