Name of the Project
Barossa project to backfill Darwin liquefied natural gas (DLNG) plant.

Location
About 300 km north of Darwin, within Santos’ Northern Australia portfolio, one of the company’s core long-life, natural gas assets.

The project area encompasses petroleum permit NT/RL5 over the Barossa field and petroleum permit NT/RL6 to the south, over the Caldita field, to be developed as a potential future phase of the project.

Project Owner/s
Gas exporter and supplier Santos and its joint venture (JV) partners, SK E&S and JERA Co.

Project Description
It is envisioned that the offshore gas and condensate project will provide a new source of gas to the existing DLNG facility in the Northern Territory.

Project infrastructure will comprise a floating production storage and offloading (FPSO) facility, a subsea production system, supporting in-field subsea infrastructure, the gas export pipeline and the Darwin pipeline duplication.

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 will be gathered from the wells through the subsea production system and then brought to the FPSO facility through a network of subsea infrastructure.

The FPSO facility will handle initial processing to separate the natural gas, water and condensate extracted from the Barossa field. The dry natural gas will be transported through the gas pipeline for onshore processing at the DLNG facility. Condensate will be transferred from the FPSO to specialised tankers for export.
Barossa’s development will extend the operating life of the DLNG plant by more than 20 years.

Potential Job Creation
Not stated.

Capital Expenditure
$4.3-billion.

Planned Start/End Date
First production from Barossa is targeted in 2025.

Latest Developments
The project has entered the production operations phase, with the BW Opal FPSO receiving first gas to start commissioning and production activities. 

Drilling across all six wells in the Barossa gasfield has intersected high-quality reservoirs, with average well deliverability estimated at 300-million standard cubic feet a day. Testing has been completed on five of the six wells. The project remains on schedule to deliver its first LNG cargo in the final quarter of 2025. 
Meanwhile, the Darwin LNG facility reached ready-for-startup status in August 2025, following the successful completion of its life-extension project for Barossa LNG. In addition, the Northern Territory Environment Protection Authority renewed the facility’s Environment Protection Licence, effective from September 19, 2025.

Key Contracts, Suppliers and Consultants
MODEC, and a consortium comprising TechnipFMC, Samsung Heavy Industries (FPSO) and INTECSEA (subsea infrastructure); Allseas Group (engineering, procurement, construction and installation of the gas export pipeline); and BW Offshore (construction, connection and operation contract for the FPSO).

Contact Details for Project Information
Santos (Darwin office), tel +61 8 8919 1900.