Feed Contracts Awarded for Oz Barossa Project

ConocoPhillips Australia, as operator of the Barossa joint venture, has awarded three engineering contracts for the front-end engineering design (Feed) phase on the Barossa offshore project, it said June 17.

Barossa is an offshore gas and light condensate project that proposes to provide a new source of gas to the existing Darwin LNG facility. The offshore development concept includes a floating production storage and offloading (FPSO) facility, subsea production system, and gas export pipeline, located in waters 300 km north of Darwin, Northern Territory.

Separate engineering contracts for the FPSO have been awarded to Modec and a consortium between TechnipFMC and Samsung Heavy Industries. A design competition will be conducted between the two groups. A third contract, for the subsea infrastructure including umbilicals, flowlines, risers and gas export pipeline, has been awarded to Intecsea.

Barossa would meet future global demand for natural gas and contribute significant income, employment and other benefits to the Northern Territory and Australia through continued operation of the Darwin LNG facility for a further 20 plus years, Conoco said.

"These contracts reaffirm Barossa's position as the leading candidate for Darwin LNG backfill, with no alternative projects in the Feed phase.  Barossa would more than double Santos' production in northern Australia and significantly increase our portfolio LNG production from early 2024 when strong, unfulfilled LNG demand is expected," said Santos CEO Kevin Gallagher. 

Santos holds a 25% interest in the Barossa joint venture while Conoco is the operator with 37.5% interest. South Korea’s SK E&S has 37.5% interest in the joint venture. Santos is also a joint venture partner in Darwin LNG with an 11.5% interest.