Santos (ASX:STO) has lodged revisions relating to the environmental plan for the export pipeline connecting the Bayu Undan gas field offshore East Timor to the Darwin LNG facility in northern Australia with the Australian regulator .
Santos proposes a revision to its in-force Bayu Undan to Darwin Gas Export Pipeline Environment Plan, to enable the continued operation of the Bayu-Undan to Darwin Gas Export Pipeline (BU GEP) and to allow the BU GEP to enter a preservation phase at the end of the Bayu-Undan field life, reported Australia’s National Offshore Petroleum Safety and Environmental Management Authority (NOPSEMA).
The pipeline crosses within East Timor, also known as Timor Leste, Australian Commonwealth and Northern Territory Coastal waters, in depths ranging from 55 to 120 metres.
“The BU GEP is a dry natural gas export pipeline transporting gas from the Bayu-Undan field located in Timor-Leste waters to the Darwin Liquefied Natural Gas (DLNG) plant. The BU GEP has been in operation since 2005 and the Bayu-Undan field is approaching the end of its commercially productive life.
At the end of the Bayu-Undan field life, the BU GEP will transition from the transport of natural gas to DLNG to linepacking of the pipeline with hydrocarbon gas to the BU GEP’s maximum operating pressure. This gas will then be back fed to the Bayu-Undan central processing facility for power generation purposes.
Once gas is no longer available to support power generation at the Bayu-Undan central processing facility, the pipeline will remain filled with hydrocarbon gas in a preservation phase until a decision is made to either repurpose the BU GEP for carbon capture and storage (CCS), or to decommission all or part of the BU GEP.
It is envisaged that the total duration of the preservation phase will be up to 36 months. A decision on whether the pipeline will be used for CCS is expected to be made during 2022,” according to NOPSEMA.