The development comes after Santos said there was almost zero chance of gas from the Greater Sunrise development being processed in Darwin following the new maritime border deal signed between Australia and Timor-Leste this week.
The new treaty only allows gas from the Sunrise field to be processed in Darwin, the preferred option for the Greater Sunrise Joint Venture, or at new facilities on Timor-Leste’s southern coast.
“[Barossa] is the only field that can provide certainty on backfill for DLNG and deliver gas when DLNG will need it in the early 2020’s,”? said Santos Head of Conventional Oil and Gas Bruce Clement.
“As one of the owners of DLNG, we want that certainty and we want to know what gas is definitely on the way to keep that plant full as Bayu-Undan comes off plateau.”?
Darwin LNG’s 3.24 MMt/a plant is connected via a 500 km pipeline to the Bayu-Undan gas field in the Timor Sea, while the plant is also geared for new gas developments in the Timor Sea, with planning approvals in place for an expansion of up to 10 MMt/a of LNG.
The Darwin LNG project partners are ConocoPhillips (operator), Santos, INPEX, Eni and Tokyo Gas.