Australia’s National Offshore Petroleum Safety and Environmental Management Authority (NOPSEMA) has announced an eight-week period to seek public opinion on ConocoPhillips’ Barossa Area Development Offshore Project Proposal (Barossa OPP).
The offshore gas and light condensate project has been proposed to be carried out in the Timor Sea’s Bonaparte Basin in the Northern Territory.
As part of it, ConocoPhillips Australia Exploration and its partners SK E&S Australia and Santos Offshore plan to develop discovered hydrocarbon resources about 300kms from the north of Darwin coast.
The project aims to create a new source of gas to the existing Darwin LNG (DLNG) facility after securing the necessary commercial arrangements.
ConocoPhillips Australia West president Chris Wilson said that the existing infrastructure owners are evaluating various options to backfill DLNG from 2023 when the current offshore gas supply from Bayu-Undan is aniticipated to be exhausted.
Wilson added: “As Operator of the Barossa Project, we believe Barossa is a leading backfill candidate.
“Barossa represents a further multi-billion-dollar investment that will ensure ConocoPhillips continues to play a key role in building the economies of Darwin, the Northern Territory and the Nation for many years to come.”
According to ConocoPhillips, the development concept features a Floating Production Storage and Offloading (FPSO) facility, subsea production system along with a gas export pipeline, all located in the Commonwealth waters.
The Barossa offshore development area surrounds potential future phased development in the Caldita Field to the south in retention lease NT/RL6 and petroleum retention lease NT/RL5. ConocoPhillips is the operator of the two leases with 37.5% stake in each of them.
Image: The Barossa project will become a new source of gas for the existing Darwin LNG plant. Photo: courtesy of ConocoPhillips Company.