Bayu Undan decommissioning this year as Santos accelerates giant CCS plan offshore East Timor

Australian operator Santos (ASX:STO) is making ready to decommission the floating storage and offloading (FSO) facility, in addition to platforms, at Bayu Undan offshore East Timor, as quickly as doable, because it accelerates plans for a large carbon seize and storage (CCS) hub on the mature discipline.

The FSO, which is because of be disconnected by December newest, may very well be decontaminated offshore or it may be moved to East Timor, often known as Timor Leste, for remedy. After decontamination the vessel will more than likely be shipped to Turkey for decommissioning, business sources advised Power Voice.

Santos is eager to drag ahead decommissioning actions as “there may be some huge cash at stake” to get the manufacturing tools eliminated “as quickly as doable” with plans to remodel Bayu Undan into a large CCS facility, an business supply near the venture advised Power Voice.

The entire infrastructure must be dismantled, together with the subsea pipelines, added the supply. The Bayu-Undan offshore services include a floating storage and offloading facility (FSO) and three mounted platforms, a distant wellhead platform (WPI), a compression, utilities, and quarters platform (CUQ) and a drilling, manufacturing, and processing platform (DPP).

Fuel-liquids manufacturing from the Bayu-Undan discipline within the Timor Sea will seemingly stop in direction of the tip of this 12 months, operator Santos reported in its newest operational overview in April. The continued decline is in step with expectations, stated Santos.

Santos is taking a look at strategies of cleansing the Bayu Undan services offshore as a base case with an choice to carry the FSO into Tibar port in East Timor for additional clear up in preparation of going to Europe for last decommissioning, stated a Dili-based supply.

“Santos has at all times recognized that dealing with of any waste in Timor Leste must be accomplished in accordance with Australian / worldwide requirements. At present, there are not any services to deal with all of the waste varieties in Timor Leste, nevertheless that is being checked out as a part of the decommissioning work scope,” added the supply.

Native content material in East Timor can even be a spotlight, added a separate business supply.

Bayu-Undan is situated 500km offshore Darwin, Australia, within the Timor Sea, and is 250km south of East Timor in waters 80 metres deep.

Santos has proposed to make use of the Bayu Undan reservoir for capturing and storing carbon dioxide (CO2) from a brand new discipline it’s creating off northwestern Australia, the $3.6 billion Barossa venture, the place the gasoline has a really excessive CO2 content material in comparison with different initiatives within the area. Fuel from Barossa will likely be processed on the Darwin liquefied pure gasoline (LNG) terminal in northern Australia for export to nations, akin to Japan and South Korea, that are demanding cleaner gasoline to satisfy their net-zero aspirations.

Barossa is because of begin pumping gasoline in 2025, and Santos has stated it expects Bayu Undan CCS to be prepared when the sphere begins up. It sees the Bayu Undan reservoir finally having the ability to retailer 10 million tonnes of CO2 a 12 months.

Santos’ South Korean companion in Barossa, power firm SK E&S, is below growing stress from Korean financiers to make sure the venture has CCS locked in.

Santos goals to take a last funding choice (FID) in 2023 on the CCS venture, which it claims has the potential to be the biggest on this planet. In March, Santos introduced it had began front-end engineering and design (FEED) work for the proposed CCS venture.

Extra data on the Bayu Undan decommissioning and contracting scope of labor is offered right here.

Santos has a 43.4% operated curiosity in Bayu-Undan and Darwin LNG. The remaining curiosity is held by SK E&S (25%), INPEX (11.4%), ENI (11%), JERA (6.1%) and Tokyo Fuel (3.1%).