Santos has announced that the BW Opal FPSO (Floating Production, Storage and Offloading vessel) has successfully received first gas following its Ready-for-Start-Up (RFSU) status, bringing the Barossa LNG project into a new operational phase.
The BW Opal achieved RFSU on 16 September 2025, and has since begun receiving gas from the subsea wells.
All six wells drilled in the Barossa gas field encountered excellent reservoir quality, and flow testing of five wells demonstrated performance exceeding pre-drill estimates. Each well has an average potential deliverability of about 300 million standard cubic feet per day.
In parallel, the Northern Territory Environment Protection Authority renewed the Environmental Protection Licence for the Darwin LNG plant, effective from 19 September 2025, clearing the way for the plant to receive first gas.
Santos Managing Director & CEO Kevin Gallagher said that RFSU for BW Opal marks the transition from project execution into production operations. He described first gas into the FPSO as a “critical step” that reflects the efforts of Santos’ team and partners, and positions the project to provide reliable energy to customers and long-term value to shareholders.
The BW Opal FPSO measures 358 metres in length and accommodates up to 140 personnel. It is designed to process 850 million standard cubic feet of gas per day and handle approximately 11,000 barrels of condensate per day. Energy-efficiency measures such as combined-cycle power generation, waste heat recovery, and steam turbine technology are expected to cut non-reservoir emissions by more than 50 per cent compared with the original project design.
With the RFSU milestone, Santos will recognise a lease liability of about US$665 million and a right-of-use asset value of about US$1.4 billion, which includes the lease liability, FPSO pre-payment, and direct costs. The new operating lease liability is expected to increase the company’s gearing by roughly 2.4 percentage points.
Located approximately 285 kilometres offshore from Darwin, the Barossa FPSO will supply feed gas to the Darwin LNG plant for the next two decades.
