Barossa Gas Project

Project overview

The Santos-operated Barossa Gas Project is an offshore gas and condensate project that proposes to provide a new source of gas to the existing Darwin liquified natural gas (DLNG) facility in the Northern Territory.

Natural gas would be extracted from the Barossa field, located in Commonwealth waters approximately 300 kilometres offshore north-northwest from Darwin, and transported via gas pipeline (Gas Export Pipeline (GEP) and Darwin Pipeline Duplication (DPD)) to the existing DLNG facility, with first gas targeted for 2025.

Project infrastructure would consist of a Floating Production Storage and Offloading (FPSO) facility, a subsea production system, supporting in-field subsea infrastructure, the GEP and the DPD.

Up to eight subsea wells are planned to be drilled in the Barossa field (six wells from three drill centres), with contingency plans for an additional two wells. Gas and condensate would be gathered from the wells through the subsea production system and then brought to the FPSO facility via a network of subsea infrastructure.

Initial processing would occur at the FPSO facility, to separate the natural gas, water and condensate extracted from the Barossa field. The dry natural gas would be transported through the gas pipeline for onshore processing at the DLNG facility. Condensate would be transferred from the FPSO to specialised tankers for export.

location of the Barossa Gas Development project — Figure 1: Barossa location

Consultation overview

The Commonwealth Government’s independent expert regulator for offshore oil and gas development, the National Offshore Petroleum Safety and Environmental Management Authority (NOPSEMA), accepted the Barossa Offshore Project Proposal (OPP) in March 2018.

Acceptance of the OPP is the government’s project-level environmental approval for offshore projects, with construction and operations subject to further acceptance of activity-level environment plans (EPs).

To be accepted by NOPSEMA, an EP must meet the requirements set out in the Offshore Petroleum and Greenhouse Gas Storage (Environment) Regulations 2023 (OPGGS Environment Regulations).

The OPGGS Environment Regulations set out that an EP must (among other things):

comprehensively describe the activity to be carried out under the EP
describe the environment that may be affected by the activity, including the values and sensitivities of that environment
detail and evaluate the environmental impacts and risks for the relevant activity
demonstrate that the impacts and risks of the activity will be reduced to as low as reasonably practicable and an acceptable level (and detail the control measures to be used to achieve this)
demonstrate that Santos has consulted, in accordance with regulatory requirements, with each relevant person, including those whose functions, interests or activities may be affected by the activities to be carried out under the EP
demonstrate that the measures (if any) that Santos has adopted, or proposes to adopt, because of the consultations are appropriate

Santos is planning several offshore petroleum activities to develop the Barossa Gas Project, which will be addressed under different EPs. Santos is required to consult with relevant persons about those activities when preparing each EP.

‘Relevant persons’ includes relevant Commonwealth, State and Northern Territory departments or agencies, and persons and organisations whose functions, interests or activities may be affected by activities to be carried out under the relevant EPs. Click here for more information about ‘relevant persons’.

This website is intended to help people learn more about Santos’ planned Barossa Gas Project. Information is available about the activities proposed to be undertaken under EPs that Santos is/will be consulting on, so that people may consider whether they may be affected. The website enables persons to register for consultation and provide feedback, if they wish. Information about how to do this is available below.

Information will be available on the website, for each EP under consultation, regarding:

the proposed activities (including when, where and how they are proposed to be carried out)
the environment that may potentially be affected by the proposed activities
identified potential impacts and risks of the proposed activities
proposed control measures to seek to reduce impacts and risks to as low as reasonably practicable and an acceptable level

Santos consults to further ascertain, understand and assess values and sensitivities of the environment that may be affected by a proposed activity, and potential environmental impacts and risks of a proposed activity. There may be information Santos is not yet aware of but needs to properly understand and assess potential activity impacts and risks. Consultation may inform this. It may also inform what control measures are to be proposed to reduce environmental impacts and risks to as low as reasonably practicable and to an acceptable level.

Upcoming consultation sessions

We will be consulting with Tiwi Islands people on our Production Operations Environment Plan at these upcoming sessions:

Monday 8 April 2024: Sports & Social Club, Pirlangimpi
10:30am – Munupi Clan (this session will include Darwin Pipeline Duplication Environmental Plan consultation)

Tuesday 9 April 2024: Sports & Recreation Centre, Milikapiti
10:30am – Marrikawuyanga & Yimpinari Clans
1:00pm – Wulirankuwu Clan

Wednesday 10 April 2024: Mantiyupwi Motel, Wurrumiyanga
10:30am – Mantiyupwi Clan
1:00pm – Jikilaruwu Clan

Thursday 11 April 2024: Mantiyupwi Motel, Wurrumiyanga
10:30am – Wurankuwu Clan
1:00pm – Malawu Clan

We’re listening

Santos is committed to undertaking genuine and meaningful consultation. Santos wants to understand the appropriate consultation processes for different relevant persons and to provide information in an appropriate and accessible manner so that relevant persons may make informed assessments of the possible consequences of the proposed activities as may be applicable to them. Your feedback about these matters is important.

We are now conducting preliminary consultation for the proposed Darwin Pipeline Duplication project, to enable potential relevant persons to self-identify and inform how they would like to be consulted. For more information about the project or how to provide your input, click the Darwin Pipeline Duplication project link below.