In a major milestone for its Barossa gas project, Santos has received the final regulatory approval required to commence production, with first gas expected in Q3.
The National Offshore Petroleum Safety and Environmental Management Authority (NOPSEMA) accepted the company’s environmental plan on 22 April, allowing the energy giant to begin extracting natural gas from the Barossa field, located approximately 285km offshore north-northwest of Darwin.
Up to eight subsea wells are planned to be drilled in the Barossa field (six wells from three drill centres), with contingency plans for an additional two wells. Gas and condensate would be gathered from the wells through the subsea production system and then brought to a floating production, storage, and offloading (FPSO) facility via a network of subsea infrastructure.
Initial processing would occur at the FPSO facility, to separate the natural gas, water and condensate extracted from the Barossa field. The dry natural gas would be transported through the gas export pipeline for onshore processing at the Darwin liquified natural gas (DLNG) facility. Condensate would be transferred from the FPSO to specialised tankers for export.
The Barossa project includes two defined operational areas.
Operational area one is located at the Barossa gas field and encompasses the FPSO, subsea infrastructure and the start of the gas export pipeline.
Operational area two encompasses the area 500m either side of the Barossa gas pipeline route, from operational area one to the Commonwealth/Northern Territory waters boundary.
The activities included in the approved Environment Plan are:
- FPSO arrival, hook-up and commissioning
- Initial start-up to steady state
- Operation of FPSO and subsea infrastructure and associated activities
- Inspection, maintenance, monitoring and repair (IMMR) activities for subsea infrastructure and gas export pipeline
FPSO hook-up and commissioning is expected to commence in the first half of 2025, with the required activities expected to take approximately three months.
FPSO initial start-up will commence upon completion of hook-up and commissioning, with associated activities expected to be approximately four months.
Following start-up and ramp-up to full production, steady state production is planned to commence in Q3 2025 and will be continuous for approximately 25 years.
Planned IMMR activities will occur at the following frequencies:
- Operational area one: Initial inspections performed during the first two years of operations. Subsequent frequencies will then be determined via a risk-based inspection program
- Operational area two from three to five years, with the findings to be used to inform future frequencies
The duration of each IMMR campaign is approximately 21 days.
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