Eni, Santos assessing Timor Sea gas collaborations

Offshore staff

ADELAIDE, Australia – Santos and Eni have agreed to cooperate on offshore gas field opportunities in northern Australia and Timor-Leste.

Areas identified under their memorandum of understanding (MoU) include assessing potential for:

• Shared infrastructure between the Barossa field project and the Evans Shoal development
• Expansion of the onshore Darwin LNG complex
• Collaboration in new upstream developments connected to other stranded resources offshore northern Australia. This could include the development of the Petrel and Tern fields through the Blacktip/Yelcherr gas plant facilities
• Options for repurposing and extend the life of the Bayu-Undan offshore facilities in the Timor Sea, including a carbon capture and storage (CCS) project, subject to approval by the Timor-Leste government.

The MoU follows Santos’ recent FID announcement concerning the Barossa gas and condensate project and life extension for Darwin LNG for the next 20 years.

Santos managing director and CEO Kevin Gallagher said: “CCS opportunities at Bayu-Undan are extremely exciting for Santos and Eni and today we are saying, we would like to be open for business to take your CO₂.

“In 2019 the London Convention was amended to allow CO₂ to be transported across jurisdictions to enable the establishment of storage hubs.

“A CCS project at Bayu-Undan could provide a new job-creating and revenue-generating industry for Timor-Leste with quality carbon credits.”

The two companies are already partners in Bayu-Undan, Darwin LNG and the connecting gas pipeline. Eni operates the Evans Shoal and Blacktip gas fields, while Santos operates the Caldita Barossa and Tern gas fields and is also a partner in Petrel.

Eni’s long-term goal is for gas – increasingly decarbonized – to represent more than 90% of its production.

05/03/2021