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Santos provided an update on the project in its second-quarter results report on Thursday.
The company and its joint venture partners, SK E&S and Jera have invested $3.95 billion (A$6.07 billion at today’s rates) on the Barossa LNG project to date.
Last month, the LNG player announced that the FPSO arrived at the Barossa gas field approximately 285 km north of Darwin.
Santos said in the update that final commissioning activities are “progressing to plan.”
The company said that drilling activities were completed on the fifth and sixth wells in the six-well Barossa drilling program.
“The fifth well had strong flow back results. The sixth well has been cased and suspended to return for final flowback operations in the third quarter. The MS1 drill rig is returning to complete the previously suspended fourth well,” Santos said.
Also, the Darwin LNG life extension project is approximately 93 percent complete with the plant now being prepared for first gas in the third quarter.
Santos noted that Bayu-Undan field production ceased in June 2025, which will decrease unit production cost in the second half.
The Darwin LNG plant in Australia’s Northern Territory. launched operations in 2006, and the facility is now being readied for the next 20 years-
In 2023, the last LNG cargo produced from the Bayu-Undan gas field sailed from the Santos-operated LNG plan.
The final LNG shipment from Bayu-Undan left the 3.7 mtpa Darwin LNG plant at Wickham Point on November 11, 2023.
PNG LNG
Santos said in its report that PNG LNG achieved “strong LNG volumes in April (8.6 mtpa run rate) and May (8.7 mtpa run rate) this year, driven by high reliability (>95 percent) and a focus on maintenance planning.”
ExxonMobil holds a 33.2 percent operating interest in PNG LNG, while Santos has a 39.9 percent stake following the completion of a 2.6 percent stake sale to Papua New Guinea’s national oil and gas company Kumul, which now owns a 19.4 percent stake.
Other partners in PNG LNG include Mineral Resources Development Company and JX Nippon.
PNG LNG produced about 2.17 million tonnes in the second quarter, up from 2 million tonnes in the same quarter last year and from 2.11 million tonnes in the previous quarter.
The plant shipped 29 LNG cargoes, including four equity-marketed cargoes, during the quarter.
This compares to 27 cargoes in the same quarter last year and 28 cargoes in the prior quarter.
According to Santos, ExxonMobil, the PNG LNG operator, completed the Hides F2 well for production in the hanging wall reservoir.
The well is planned to be brought online between the fourth quarter of 2025 and the first quarter of 2026.
Santos also noted that TotalEnergies, the operator of the Papua LNG Project, along with joint venture partners Santos, ExxonMobil, and Eneos Xplora, “continues to advance critical workstreams in support of progress toward FID.”
TotalEnergies has a 37.55 percent operating stake in the Papua LNG project, ExxonMobil has 37.04 percent, Santos owns a 22.83 percent interest, and JX Nippon holds 2.58 percent.
The project calls for the design of about 4 mtpa of liquefaction capacity adjacent to the existing PNG LNG processing facilities, operated by ExxonMobil.
Also, the project includes the use of 2 mtpa of liquefaction capacity in the existing trains of PNG LNG.
GLNG
As per the Santos-operated Gladstone LNG export plant on Curtis Island near Gladstone, the facility shipped 24 LNG cargoes during the second quarter, up from 22 cargoes in the second quarter last year and down compared to 27 cargoes in the prior quarter.
The 7.8 mtpa facility produced 1.40 million tonnes of LNG during the quarter, up from 1.33 million tonnes in the same quarter last year and down from 1.66 million tonnes in the prior quarter, according to Santos.
Santos said average gross GLNG upstream gas production increased to 705 TJ per day, up from 700 TJ per day in the first quarter.
“LNG production is on track to deliver approximately six mtpa for 2025,” Santos said.
Sales revenue
Santos, which recently entered into a process and exclusivity agreement with a consortium led by Adnoc’s investment unit, XRG, related to the latter’s $18.7 billion takeover offer, reported sales revenue of $1.28 billion in the second quarter.
Sales revenue dropped compared to $1,31 billion in the same quarter lsat year and $1.29 in the previous quarter.
The company said the sales revenue was 1 percent lower than the previous quarter due to lower liquids pricing impacted by lower dated Brent and Platts MOPJ pricing, offset by higher sales volumes.