Australia's Santos to decide on Barossa project investment in coming weeks (updated)

Bw Offshore

23/03/2021 22:55

(Adds background on project, award of contract)
    March 24 (Reuters) - Oil and gas producer Santos Ltd
 STO.AX  said on Wednesday it expects to make a final investment
decision (FID) on its Barossa project in the coming weeks, after
it postponed the call last year due to a pandemic-induced oil
price crash.
    The FID on the Barossa gas project off northern Australia
was earlier expected in the March 2020 quarter, before it was
deferred to the first half of 2021.
    Barossa's development is key to Santos as it will help keep
the company's Darwin LNG plant open, since the gas field that
feeds it currently is set to run dry in 2022.
    Santos said it has awarded a contract for the construction
and operation of the offshore floating, storage and processing
vessel for the project to international vessel builder BW
Offshore  BWO.OL .
    The contract achieves an overall reduction of about $1
billion in capital expenditure, Santos said in a statement.
    Barossa project is a joint venture, with Santos holding a
62.5% interest and South Korea's SK E&S owning the rest.

 (Reporting by Rashmi Ashok in Bengaluru; Editing by Shinjini
Ganguli)
 ((Rashmi.Ashok@thomsonreuters.com; +918061822604;))