Page 9 - GLNG Week 26

GLNG austRalasia GLNG
Barossa talks on Darwin LNG backfill
PRojECts & ComPaniEs
THE Barossa joint venture has begun holding exclusive talks on supplying gas to the Darwin LNG project, as had been widely rumoured.
Santos announced the talks on June 27, not- ing the back ll talks focused on an exclusivity period, ahead of a processing services agree- ment. Talks would also secure a tari , it said, ahead of a planned nal investment decision (fID), expected early in 2020.
front-end engineering and design (fEED) work began on Barossa in April 2018. Technip Oceania was chosen as the contractor to deliver the subsea production system (SPS) in May this year.
Santos’ managing director and CEO, Kevin Gallagher, said the exclusive talks were in line with commitments made to press ahead with the Barossa work. “Clearly, it also con rms Baros- sa’s status as the lead candidate for the supply of back ll gas to Darwin LNG. Bids have also been received and are being evaluated for the [ oat- ing, production, storage and o oading] fPSO, gas export pipeline and development drilling. We’re getting on with the job.”
In May, the company said fPSO bids from
Modec and Technip-Samsung Heavy Industries (SHI) were being considered.
e Barossa eld is 300km north of Darwin, in the Bonaparte Basin. It covers the NT/RL5 permit, with potential future development on the Caldita eld, in NT/RL6.
Santos has a 25% stake in Barossa-Caldita, while ConocoPhillips owns 37.5% and is the oper- ator. e remaining equity is held by SK E&S. San- tos also has an 11.5% stake in Darwin LNG.
Linking Barossa up to Darwin LNG would extend the liquefaction’s lifespan by more than 20 years, the company has said, while more than doubling Santos’ own production in northern Australia. e plant receives gas for the moment from the Bayu-Undan gas elds, 500km o shore in the Timor Sea’s joint petroleum development area (JPDA). ConocoPhillips has projected pro- duction will end at some point in 2021-23, which will be followed by decommissioning.
Gas from Barossa could provide back ll for Darwin LNG from 2023. is liquefaction plant has been producing 2006 from a single train, with 3.7 million tonnes per year (tpy) of capacity. It produced 3.3 million tpy in 2018.™
EuRoPE
Petronas quits Dragon LNG
invEstmEnt
MALAYSIA’S national oil concern Petronas has o oaded its 50% stake in the Dragon LNG import terminal in the Welsh town of Milford Haven to London-based infrastructure inves- tor Ancala Partners. The Malaysian firm will continue buying supplies from Dragon under a long-term agreement, however.
“Dragon LNG is well placed to bene t from reducing UK gas storage capacity and maturing North Sea gas production,” Lee Mellor, a partner at Ancala, commented on July 2. “With revenues underpinned by a long-term availability-based throughput agreement with Shell and Petronas, the transaction represents an attractive addition to our portfolio and expands our midstream infrastructure activities.”
e deal’s price tag was not disclosed.
Dragon LNG, one of three LNG import plants in the UK, is capable of bringing ashore up to 9bn cubic metres (bcm) of natural gas per year. Commissioned in 2009, it recently underwent a revamp enabling it to re-liquefy gas as well.
UK North Sea gas production slumped 3.1% in 2018 to 40.6 bcm, a er several years of mod- est gains. Meanwhile, the country’s consumption reached 78.9 bcm, marking a slight increase on the previous year. Its LNG imports soared to
their highest monthly level in years in March, hitting almost 1.2mn tonnes, amid surplus sup- ply ooding out of the US and Russia and weak demand in Asia.
e UK has another LNG plant in Milford Haven, South Hook, along the Grain LNG terminal in Kent, which is due to undergo an expansion.
Royal Dutch Shell controls the other 50% of Dragon LNG. e Anglo-Dutch major was rumoured to be sounding out potential buyers for its share back in 2016, before apparently deciding against the move.
“We look forward to working with Dragon LNG’s excellent team in continuing to grow and optimise performance of the terminal,” Mellor said.™
Week 26 04•July•2019 w w w . N E W S B A S E . c o m P9