Cooking with gas: Barossa project powers on after year of delays

The Barossa gas project was delayed for a year until a federal-court case breathed new life into the development. Read where it’s at.

Drilling has begun on a second well in the Barossa gas field, 290km north-west of Darwin.

In its annual results released last week, South Australian-based resources company Santos said the second well was matching outcomes from the first, with strong gas flows and low carbon emissions.

According to Santos, the Barossa gas project is now 67 per cent complete with first gas expected in the third quarter of 2025.

The pipeline that will deliver gas from the field to Darwin LNG is now 68 per cent complete and more than 50 per cent of the pipe has been laid.

The company said initial well flow rates from the second drill were “in line with expectations” and carbon dioxide content was at the low end of the expected range.

Santos CEO Kevin Gallagher. Picture by Kelly Barnes/Kelly Barnes Photos

The company anticipates that at full production, Barossa is expected to add 1.8m tonnes per annum to Santos’ expanding LNG portfolio.

Completed just after Justice Natalie Charlesworth’s historic January 15 finding that cleared the way for work to resume laying the pipeline past the Tiwi Islands, the report is upbeat about the project’s future.

It forecasts completion and integration of the floating production and storage offloading facility in the first-half of 2025 and complete installation and testing of the gas export pipeline.

Federal Court Judge Natalie Charlesworth.

Subsea flow lines will be installed and tested this year and construction will begin on the Darwin pipeline duplication that will connect the gas export pipeline to Darwin LNG plant.

The report also said Santos transitioned to supplying gas from Bayu Undan to the NT domestic market on November 30, although failed to mention when supplies would run out.

The plant itself is being isolated and hydrocarbons removed and the Darwin life extension project is 32 per cent complete and on track for completion in the first half of 2025.

The life extension project will prepare the Wickham Point LNG plant to switch from Bayu Undan field sourced gas to Barossa gas.

Santos chief executive Kevin Gallagher said projects like Barossa were the future of Australian energy generation.

“Our critical fuels are a necessary component in the energy security of Australia and Asia, and will be required to provide affordable and reliable energy while the world transitions to lower-carbon alternatives,” Mr Gallagher said.