US giant ConocoPhillips has handed out the engineering procurement, construction and installation contract for the export gas pipeline at its Barossa development off northern Australia.
ConocoPhillips revealed Thursday it had handed Allseas Marine Contractors Australia the key EPCI contract which covers the procurement, transportation and installation of a 260-kilometre pipeline, project management, engineering and associated services.
Thursday’s announcement confirmed an earlier report by Upstream that Allseas was the frontrunner for the EPCI contract, edging out Italian contractor Saipem.
The gas export pipeline will transport gas from the Barossa field, which lies roughly 300 kilometres north of Darwin, to a tie-in location on the existing Bayu-Darwin Pipeline 100kms north-west of Darwin.
That pipeline feeds ConocoPhillips’ Darwin liquefied natural gas export project, with gas from Barossa to provide backfill as production from the existing Bayu-Undan field runs out.
“Award of this EPCI contract will enable specific project management and engineering deliverables to be progressed prior to a final investment decision in order to meet the project schedule,” ConocoPhillips Australia West president Chris Wilson said following the award of the contract.
“We continue to focus on strong cost discipline with all our selected contractors, developing the certainty of cost, schedule and execution planning required to compete in our global portfolio and support a final investment decision.”
The Barossa development is currently in the front-end engineering and design phase, with a final investment decision expected next year.
The proposed development will involve the drilling of nine subsea wells in two phases, with gas from the wells being delivered to a FPSO which will be capable of processing 800 million cubic feet per day of gas and 6000 barrels per day of condensate.
Condensate will be exported directly from the FPSO via offtake tankers, while the gas to be transported via pipeline to the Darwin LNG facilities in the Northern Territory.
ConocoPhillips operates Barossa with a 37.5%, while Santos holds 25% and SK E&S holds the remaining 37.5% interest.