Swiss offshore contractor Allseas Group has bagged a contract from ConocoPhillips Australia pertaining to a gas export pipeline that will connect the Barossa Offshore Project with the existing Bayu-Undan to Darwin Pipeline in Australia’s Northern Territory.

As per the engineering, procurement, construction, and installation (EPCI) contract, Allseas Group, through its subsidiary Allseas Marine Contractors Australia, will undertake procurement, transportation, and installation of the 260km long Barossa gas pipeline. The Swiss offshore contractor will also handle project management, engineering and related services of the Barossa gas export pipeline.

The Barossa pipeline project will deliver gas produced from the Barossa gas and light condensate field to the Darwin LNG plant at Wickham Point through the 502km long Bayu-Undan to Darwin Pipeline laid between the ConocoPhillips-operated Bayu-Undan field in the Timor Sea and Darwin.

Barossa Offshore Project : Allseas Group bags EPCI contract for Barossa gas export pipeline. Image courtesy of Petroleum man1 at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

The Barossa Offshore Project will become a new source of natural gas to the Darwin LNG plant after production of gas from the Bayu-Undan field gets exhausted, thereby extending the life of the Australian LNG facility for another 20 years.

As of now, ConocoPhillips and its partners are in the front-end engineering design (FEED) phase of the Barossa Offshore Project, which is located about 300km north of Darwin. A final investment decision on the Barossa field development and associated infrastructure is expected to be made later this year.

The Barossa field development will involve a floating production storage and offloading (FPSO) facility, a subsea production system and the Barossa gas export pipeline.

While Modec holds the FEED contract for the Barossa FPSO, Technip Oceania will be responsible for delivering the subsea production system for the offshore gas project.

Chris Wilson – ConocoPhillips Australia West President, commenting on the latest Barossa Offshore Project contract to Allseas, said: “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. 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.”

ConocoPhillips is the operator of the Barossa Offshore Project with 37.5% stake with its partners being SK E&S Australia and Santos Offshore with stakes of 37.5% and 25%, respectively.