The Australian Northern Territory government (region of Darwin) has saved A$250,000 (US$187,000) for the financial support of the Darwin LNG second train feasibility study. It will contribute to about 40% of the study cost while the remainder will be provided by ConocoPhillips and its partners.
Darwin LNG, which is made up of ConocoPhillips (60%), Eni (11%), Santos (11%), Inpex (Japan, 11%), Tepco (6%) and Tokyo Gas (3%), built the country's second liquefaction plant in Darwin (capacity of 3.7 Mt/year, cost of A$1.5bn, commissioned in 2006).
The facility currently has a capacity of 3.7 Mt/y. The construction started in 2003 and the first train was commissioned in 2006. Gas is transported via a 502 km pipeline from the offshore Bayu-Undan field (Timor Sea), converted into LNG at the plant and sold to Tokyo Electric and Tokyo Gas in Japan.
The Bayu-Undan field is expected to run out in 2022. ConocoPhillips is looking for other supply sources and mulls to develop the Caldita-Barossa field for US$10bn in order to secure Darwin LNG's output after this date.