ConocoPhillips awards major FEED contracts for Barossa

ConocoPhillips Australia has awarded three major engineering contracts for the front-end engineering design (FEED) phase of the Barossa offshore project.

Barossa is a gas and light condensate project which proposes to provide a new source of gas to the existing Darwin LNG (DLNG) facility, subject to suitable commercial arrangements being put in place. The development concept includes an FPSO facility, subsea production system, and gas export pipeline in Commonwealth waters 300 kilometres (186 miles) north of Darwin.

The existing DLNG infrastructure owners are assessing several options to backfill the facility from 2023 when the current offshore gas supply from Bayu-Undan is expected to be exhausted.

Separate engineering contracts for the FPSO have been awarded to MODEC and a consortium between TechnipFMC and Samsung Heavy Industries. A design competition will be conducted between the two groups.

A third contract, for the subsea infrastructure including umbilicals, flowlines, risers and gas export pipeline, has been awarded to INTECSEA.

ConocoPhillips Australia West President Chris Wilson said the award of the FEED contracts represents a significant step in positioning Barossa as a leading candidate to extend the life of the DLNG facility for another two decades.

“Barossa is the first potential DLNG backfill project to progress into the FEED phase, positioning it strongly to secure access to the DLNG capacity following the end of production at Bayu-Undan,” Mr Wilson said. “We look forward to working together with our selected FEED contractors to develop sufficient certainty of cost, schedule and execution planning to support a final investment decision at the end of 2019.”

The Barossa joint venturers are ConocoPhillips Australia Barossa Pty Ltd (operator, 37.5%), SK E&S Australia Pty Ltd (37.5%), and Santos Offshore Pty Ltd (25.0%).

Source: Offshore Magazine