Santos faces further delays to Barossa gas development project

Barossa gas field partners face a new delay as the National Offshore Petroleum Safety and Environmental Management Authority (NOPSEMA) has ordered evaluation of environmental risks to underwater indigenous cultural heritage before starting construction on the pipeline that will link the field to the Darwin LNG plant.

Pipeline construction had been scheduled to begin end-January as part of the $3.9-billion Santos Ltd.-operated development program in the Timor Sea off north Australia.

The order came following an unannounced inspection by NOPSEMA of Santos headquarters in Adelaide in late December 2022 related to potential environmental impacts and risks of the pipelining activity not previously identified in the environmental plan.

The directive is in addition to a separate court order issued in December requiring Santos to consult indigenous people on Tiwi Islands about the project’s environmental plan for the development drilling program.

The new directive orders Santos to inform NOPSEMA 10 days prior to any future activities associated with the pipeline and to complete an assessment by independent experts to identify any underwater cultural heritage sites along the proposed pipeline route.

The pipeline environmental plan will then need to incorporate any new information that may arise from the assessment.

In a statement, Santos said pipeline installation would be a low-impact activity involving pipelay on the seabed without dredging or trenching activity. It also said it would follow the NOPSEMA notice and update its environmental plan to reflect any risks and describe any measures the company plans to take to reduce those risks to a level as low as reasonably practicable and acceptable.

At press time, no indication had been made on when the new assessment would be completed, when work on pipline construction may begin, or when there would be a resumption in development drilling.

The overall project plans to send Barossa gas via undersea pipeline 280 km to the existing Darwin LNG plant to replace gas supply from the depleting Bayu-Undan gas field in the East Timor sector of the Timor Sea.

Santos still hopes to bring gas on-stream in first-half 2025.

Santos is operator of the Barossa project with 50% interest. Partners are SK E&S (37.5%) and JERA (12.5%).

Santos is operator of Bayu-Undan and the Darwin LNG plant with 43.4% interest. Partners are SK E&S (25%), INPEX (11.4%), ENI (11%), JERA (6.1%), and Tokyo Gas (3.1%).