Page 10 - GLNG Week 21 2021

GLNG ASIA GLNG

Santos kicks off Timor-Leste drilling

PROJECTS & AUSTRALIAN independent Santos has started wells, with first production expected in the third
COMPANIES the Phase 3C infill drilling programme at the quarter.
Bayu-Undan field offshore in Timor-Leste. Gallagher added: “The infill drilling pro-
The company, which operates the Bayu-Un- gramme will add over 20mn barrels of oil equiv-
dan joint venture, said on May 25 that the alent [boe] gross reserves and production at a
development would include three production low cost of supply and importantly extends the
wells. Santos hopes to bolster the field’s gas and life of Bayu-Undan and the jobs and investment
liquids reserves, thereby extending both its life that rely on it.”
as well as production from the Darwin LNG The head of Timor-Leste’s upstream regula-
plant. tor Autoridade Nacional do Petroleo e Minerais
Santos hopes to extend Santos signed off on the $235mn infill drill- (ANPM), Florentino Soares Ferreira, said: “The
the life of Darwin LNG ing programme in January as a means of min- Phase 3C drilling campaign … will mark the
through the infill drilling imising Darwin LNG’s downtime between first drilling campaign in the Bayu-Undan field
programme. when Bayu-Undan had been forecast to run dry as Timor-Leste offshore waters, following ratifi-
and the anticipated start-up of the Barossa gas cation of the Maritime Boundary Treaty (MBT)
project. between Timor-Leste and Australia.”
The Santos-led consortium developing the He added: “The decision for the Phase 3C
Barossa natural gas and condensate field reached infill well investment has gone through a thor-
a final investment decision (FID) on the $3.6bn ough assessment, taking into consideration
project in March. That field lies offshore Austral- relevant critical workstreams, which include
ia’s Northern Territory. the Phase 3C economic and technical review,
Santos managing director and CEO Kevin procurement and local content strategy and reg-
Gallagher said the Noble Tom Prosser jack-up ulatory approval to preserve the value and eco-
rig is responsible for drilling the Bayu-Undan nomics of the project.”™

EUROPE

EIB funds Bulgarian-Serbian gas pipeline

PIPELINES & THE European Investment Bank (EIB) has Serbia already shares a pipeline connection
TRANSPORT pledged a €25mn ($30.5mn) loan for the devel- with Bulgaria, but this is used to pump Russian
opment of a gas pipeline linking Bulgaria with gas arriving in Southeast Europe via the Turk-
Serbia. Stream pipeline.
Officials from the bank and the Bulgarian and Serbia’s government recently launched a pub-
Serbian governments noted in a signing cere- lic call to select companies to build the pipeline,
mony that the 171-km Nis-Dimitrovgrad pipe- which will be able to bring up to 1.8bn cubic
line would enable Serbia to access gas supplies metres of gas per year into the country. Author-
from Greek LNG terminals as well as shipments ities are also preparing to select a contractor on
from Azerbaijan that are pumped through the the Bulgarian side.
Southern Gas Corridor (SGC). It is listed as a
project of common interest, which earlier ena- Croatian LNG
bled it to access a €49.5mn grant. It has been suggested that Serbia might even-
The EIB is supporting construction of the tually be able to receive gas arriving at the Krk
pipeline’s Serbian section, which will cost LNG terminal in Croatia, which came on stream
€85.5mn in total. A further €48mn will be in January.
required to build it in Bulgaria. The investment The facility’s operator, Croatia LNG,
will be one of the EIB’s last in gas infrastructure, announced the undertaking of the first small-
as it has vowed to stop financing oil, gas and coal scale LNG reloading operation in the Mediter-
projects after the end of this year, while expand- ranean on May 12. An LNG cargo was loaded
ing its support for renewables. from the terminal’s floating storage and regas-
Serbia depends on coal for more than half of ification unit (FSRU) to the 7,000-cubic metre
its total energy supply, the International Energy Avenir Accolade vessel, the operator said.
Agency (IEA) estimates, while it uses gas for just The Krk facility can import up to 2.6 bcm per
15%. The country is eager to expand the share of year of regasified supply, with most of its capacity
gas to reduce emissions and lower costs. But first having been booked by Qatar. It can also store up
it must diversify its sources of supply to mini- to 140,200 cubic metres of LNG. Croatia LNG is
mise any risk to its energy security. The country a joint venture between Croatian state compa-
relies heavily on imports of Russian gas. nies Hrvatska Elektroprivreda and Plinarco.™

P10 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 21 28•May•2021