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Released September 25, 2025 | SUGAR LAND
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Written by Paul Wiseman for Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--Australia's Santos Limited (Adelaide) this week announced that the BW Offshore-built BW Opal FPSO (floating production, storage and offloading vessel) at the Barossa gas field development project received first gas, to commence production operations. Santos's Barossa joint venture partners are PRISM Energy Australia (Perth, Australia) (37.5%) and Japan-based JERA Australia (12.5%).
Santos bought the Barossa project from ConocoPhillips (Houston, Texas) for $4.7 billion in 2021.
The Opal FPSO draws natural gas from six wells located 285 kilometers (about 177 miles) offshore from Darwin in Australia's Northern Territory. Its gas handling capacity is 850 million standard cubic feet per day and condensate handling capacity is 11,000 barrels per day. IIR data show the total investment in the FPSO at US$1.613 billion. The authorization for expenditure (AFE) was issued in April 2023.
Subscribers to Industrial Info's Global Market Intelligence (GMI) Oil & Gas Production Plant Database can click here for a profile on the FPSO.
It will supply natural gas to Santos' Darwin LNG plant, which was closed in 2023 due to the depletion of the Bayu-Undan field that had previously supplied its natural gas. The Northern Territory Environment Protection Authority last week renewed the Environment Protection License for the Darwin facility. It will deliver mainly to buyers in Japan. Santos expects the Opal FPSO to supply the LNG plant's natural gas for two decades.
Transporting the gas will be the Gas Export Pipeline (GEP), a 262-kilometer long, 26-inch-diameter pipeline that will connect the Barossa field to the Darwin Pipeline Duplication (DPD). Construction on the GEP was completed in June 2024.
Regarding the DPD, the original plan was to connect the GEP to the existing Bayu-Undan pipeline. But due to the Barossa field's exceedingly high carbon dioxide (CO2) content, Santos decided to make the project more carbon capture, use and sequestration-friendly by freeing up part of the Bayu-Undan for transporting CO2 from Barossa over the Bayu-Undan for sequestration.
To allow the original pipeline to transport CO2, the DPD duplicates part of the Bayu-Undan's route in order to carry the natural gas to the LNG plant.
Santos and partners took a final investment decision for the Darwin Pipeline Duplication project in 2022.
World Natural Gas Market Impact Minimal
IIR's Natural Gas Products and Senior Energy Analyst Maria Sanchez sees this new production as having limited effect on world natural gas markets due to its small size. "Its production will be only 0.8 Bcf/d [billion cubic feet per day], so it would be hard to determine the impact on a global basis," she said.
Climate activists and Northern-Territory-located Tiwi Islands original owners groups' opposition to the entire project in 2021 caused Santos to reroute the pipeline and refigure consultations, but they failed to stop the project. Opposition was based both on its potential encroachment on traditional waters and its high carbon content, the latter of which is seen as a threat to Australia's ability to meet carbon neutral 2050 goals.
Santos Turmoil The BW Opal FPSO first production announcement was good news for Santos investors. Last week, after months of negotiations, an Abu Dhabi National Oil Company.-led consortium, through subsidiary XRG, withdrew a $19 billion offer to buy Santos.
In 2024, buyout discussions with Australia's Woodside Energy Group Limited (Perth) failed, and in 2018 U.S. based Harbor Energy's buyout overtures were rejected by Santos Chief Executive Officer Kevin Gallagher. Historically, Gallagher has instead pushed aggressive investment aimed at increasing the company's production by 50% by 2030. The 2021 purchase of Barossa and the first production from the field announced this week are seen as significant, yet costly, steps in that direction.
Industrial Info Resources (IIR) is the leading provider of industrial market intelligence. Since 1983, IIR has provided comprehensive research, news and analysis on the industrial process, manufacturing and energy related industries. IIR's Global Market Intelligence (GMI) platform helps companies identify and pursue trends across multiple markets with access to real, qualified and validated plant and project opportunities. Across the world, IIR is tracking more than 200,000 current and future projects worth $17.8 trillion (USD).
Santos bought the Barossa project from ConocoPhillips (Houston, Texas) for $4.7 billion in 2021.
The Opal FPSO draws natural gas from six wells located 285 kilometers (about 177 miles) offshore from Darwin in Australia's Northern Territory. Its gas handling capacity is 850 million standard cubic feet per day and condensate handling capacity is 11,000 barrels per day. IIR data show the total investment in the FPSO at US$1.613 billion. The authorization for expenditure (AFE) was issued in April 2023.
Subscribers to Industrial Info's Global Market Intelligence (GMI) Oil & Gas Production Plant Database can click here for a profile on the FPSO.
It will supply natural gas to Santos' Darwin LNG plant, which was closed in 2023 due to the depletion of the Bayu-Undan field that had previously supplied its natural gas. The Northern Territory Environment Protection Authority last week renewed the Environment Protection License for the Darwin facility. It will deliver mainly to buyers in Japan. Santos expects the Opal FPSO to supply the LNG plant's natural gas for two decades.
Transporting the gas will be the Gas Export Pipeline (GEP), a 262-kilometer long, 26-inch-diameter pipeline that will connect the Barossa field to the Darwin Pipeline Duplication (DPD). Construction on the GEP was completed in June 2024.
Regarding the DPD, the original plan was to connect the GEP to the existing Bayu-Undan pipeline. But due to the Barossa field's exceedingly high carbon dioxide (CO2) content, Santos decided to make the project more carbon capture, use and sequestration-friendly by freeing up part of the Bayu-Undan for transporting CO2 from Barossa over the Bayu-Undan for sequestration.
To allow the original pipeline to transport CO2, the DPD duplicates part of the Bayu-Undan's route in order to carry the natural gas to the LNG plant.
Santos and partners took a final investment decision for the Darwin Pipeline Duplication project in 2022.
World Natural Gas Market Impact Minimal
IIR's Natural Gas Products and Senior Energy Analyst Maria Sanchez sees this new production as having limited effect on world natural gas markets due to its small size. "Its production will be only 0.8 Bcf/d [billion cubic feet per day], so it would be hard to determine the impact on a global basis," she said.
Climate activists and Northern-Territory-located Tiwi Islands original owners groups' opposition to the entire project in 2021 caused Santos to reroute the pipeline and refigure consultations, but they failed to stop the project. Opposition was based both on its potential encroachment on traditional waters and its high carbon content, the latter of which is seen as a threat to Australia's ability to meet carbon neutral 2050 goals.
Santos Turmoil The BW Opal FPSO first production announcement was good news for Santos investors. Last week, after months of negotiations, an Abu Dhabi National Oil Company.-led consortium, through subsidiary XRG, withdrew a $19 billion offer to buy Santos.
In 2024, buyout discussions with Australia's Woodside Energy Group Limited (Perth) failed, and in 2018 U.S. based Harbor Energy's buyout overtures were rejected by Santos Chief Executive Officer Kevin Gallagher. Historically, Gallagher has instead pushed aggressive investment aimed at increasing the company's production by 50% by 2030. The 2021 purchase of Barossa and the first production from the field announced this week are seen as significant, yet costly, steps in that direction.
Industrial Info Resources (IIR) is the leading provider of industrial market intelligence. Since 1983, IIR has provided comprehensive research, news and analysis on the industrial process, manufacturing and energy related industries. IIR's Global Market Intelligence (GMI) platform helps companies identify and pursue trends across multiple markets with access to real, qualified and validated plant and project opportunities. Across the world, IIR is tracking more than 200,000 current and future projects worth $17.8 trillion (USD).
