GLNG to Deliver 6mn mt LNG Sales by Year End: Santos

Santos-operated GLNG project is expected to deliver 6mn metric tons of LNG sales by the end of 2019, company chairman Keith Spence said May 2 during the annual general meeting.

GLNG exported its first load of LNG in October 2015. The joint venture arrangement is Santos 30%; Petronas 27.5%; Total 27.5%; and Kogas 15%.

Spence said last year Santos drilled a record 305 GLNG wells and will drill another 350-400 GLNG wells in 2019.

Santos is on track for an early 2020 final investment decision on the Barossa project offshore northern Australia, he said. Last year, the company entred the front end engineering and design phase.

“Santos is currently marketing its Barossa equity gas in Asia where there is a great deal of interest in these volumes,” he said.

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.

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.

This year Santos’ second Climate Change Report has set medium term targets. The first target is to increase LNG exports to 4.5mn mt/year by 2025, Spence said.

“Increasing LNG exports is the best thing we can do to reduce global emissions by displacing coal and dirty fuels in Asia. For every tonne of carbon dioxide emitted during LNG production in Australia, it saves between 3 and 10 mt of emissions when it is used for power generation in Asia,” he said.

Spence said that Santos has been at the forefront of driving the cost of supply down, which is important to place downward pressure on gas prices.

“The Australian Domestic Gas Security Mechanism has been extended for a further two years, but Santos is not relying on governments to solve this problem. Last year, Santos supplied 13% of total domestic gas demand on the east coast, up from 8% in 2017. Our vision is to be the leading domestic gas supplier in Australia,” he said.