‘If you want to work for Santos in Darwin over the long term you will have live in there’: $4.7b investment, 600 jobs in Santos gas project go ahead off NT

THE $4.7 billion Barossa project to supply replacement gas for the Darwin LNG plant will create 600 jobs throughout the construction phase and secure 350 Territory jobs for the next 20 years at the Darwin plant.

Santos Limited CEO Kevin Gallagher in a back up control room at their Adelaide headquarters Thursday June 4,2020. Picture Mark Brake

• $4.7B NT gas project decision in weeks: Santos awards biggest contract for project
• Santos to commence $300m Timor Sea drilling program to extend Darwin LNG

THE $4.7 billion Barossa project to supply replacement gas for the Darwin LNG plant will create 600 jobs throughout the construction phase and secure 350 Territory jobs for the next 20 years at the Darwin plant.

And Santos managing director and chief executive officer Kevin Gallagher has pledged all Santos wants all staff working in Darwin to be living in Darwin.

The Barossa Financial Investment Decision also kick-starts the $4.7 billion investment in the Darwin LNG life extension and pipeline tie-in projects, which will extend the facility life for 20 years.

“One of our focuses at Santos is that we are very proudly Australian and we want to employ people locally … everyone who works here permanently in 350 strong workforce will be local,” he said.

“So if you want to work for Santos in Darwin over the long term you will have live in the Northern Territory, it is as simple as that, no fly-in fly-out workforce for our Darwin operations.”

The Santos-operated Darwin LNG plant has the capacity to produce approximately 3.7 million tonnes of LNG per annum.

It will be the largest investment in Australia’s oil and gas sector in almost a decade.

Mr Gallagher said the development opens to door for further expansion at the Darwin LNG facility.

“Darwin LNG is a single train project with approval for two further trains and there is a lot of gas that has been discovered offshore of the Northern Territory that has sat stranded for many, many years and Santos is open for business,” Mr Gallagher said.

“We want all of those operators to bring develop that resource and bring it through Darwin and we are happy to talk to anybody about bringing their gas through our Darwin LNG facility. That would then lead to expansion and the building of further trains here in Darwin and a lot more jobs to go with that.

“The first cab of the rank had to be Barossa and this investment represents across the life cycle of the project a total of around $7 billion. In addition to that is the $3 billion in local wages and contracts.

“Once we get on with Barossa we will start look at how we can start bringing some of those other resources — including the vast onshore resources — and the potential that provides here for Darwin.”

The Barossa development will comprise a Floating Production, Storage and Offloading (FPSO) vessel, subsea production wells, supporting subsea infrastructure and a gas export pipeline tied into the existing Bayu-Undan to Darwin LNG pipeline. First gas production is targeted for the first half of 2025.

At the end of last year, Santos announced the tolling arrangements had been finalised for Barossa gas to be processed through Darwin LNG and that Santos had signed a long-term LNG sales agreement with Diamond Gas International, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Mitsubishi Corporation, for 1.5 million tonnes of Santos-equity LNG for 10 years with extension options.

Santos has also signed Memorandums of Understanding with SK E & S and Mitsubishi to jointly investigate opportunities for carbon-neutral LNG from Barossa, including collaboration relating to Santos’ Moomba CCS project, bilateral agreements for carbon credits and potential future development of zero-emissions hydrogen.