Our Barossa offshore project in the Bonaparte Basin in the Timor Sea will develop the area’s large natural gas and light condensate resource and extend the operating life of our existing Darwin LNG facility. The concept for the proposed project, located approximately 160 miles north of Darwin, includes a Floating Production Storage and Offloading (FPSO) facility, subsea production system, supporting in-field subsea infrastructure and a pipeline to the Darwin facility.
By incorporating sustainability considerations early into project planning efforts, we can reduce impact to the environment and support alignment with local communities. Prior to drilling for natural gas or oil, we work with governments and communities to assess and mitigate risks related to climate change, water, biodiversity, and social performance.
As the first project in Australia evaluated under a new environmental approval process for offshore natural gas and oil, the project underwent a thorough risk assessment and robust approval process. We collaborated closely with regulators to navigate the new, evolving process of assessing the project’s potential risks to both the environment and communities. This included the preparation of an in-depth Offshore Project Proposal (OPP) for submission to the National Offshore Petroleum Safety and Environmental Management Authority (NOPSEMA) and extensive, years-long stakeholder engagement to solicit concerns about the project, including an eight-week formal public comment period.
“Nothing about these projects is quick or easy. We began appraising the area in 2014, establishing baseline environmental analysis and determining how to mitigate or minimize the impact of our operations on the area. We spent years meeting with communities, including fishermen, who may be impacted by our operations, working to understand and address their concerns. And we aren’t scheduled to produce gas until 2023,” said Pat Dinan, Barossa Project Director.
The OPP is prepared during a project’s early design phase and considers all potential impacts and risks over the project’s life cycle. Environmental risk assessments consider the nature and scale of each potential impact and risk, including conservation of biodiversity and overall ecosystem integrity. The risk assessment was informed by extensive marine baseline studies that provided a greater understanding of the remote region’s environment. The proposal also defines measurable, specific key management controls and environmental performance outcomes that will be applied to manage the potential environmental impacts and risks associated with the project. The remote project location, predominantly in open offshore waters, and pipeline channel planning mean that facility siting can avoid areas of regional environmental importance such as shoals, banks, coral reefs, or biologically important areas for marine fauna.
Extensive Stakeholder Engagement
Our stakeholder engagement efforts began far before the start of the formal OPP public comment period, early in the project planning process. Over the course of a four-year period, we consulted with more than 100 stakeholder organizations, including community members, governments, commercial fishing associations, fishermen, educational and scientific organizations, non-government organizations (NGOs), spill response agencies and other natural gas and oil industry operators. Though our planned operations are not in an area of high fishing activity, we closely consulted with the active commercial fisheries in the region and plan continued research and collaboration with them as well as government and research groups.
Indigenous peoples living on the Tiwi Islands will be the closest neighbors to the Barossa project and were consulted about the project and potential opportunities to create mutual benefit. The Tiwi Islands are about 60 miles south of the Barossa offshore development area and about four miles from the gas export pipeline corridor at its closest point. We considered several important habitats, including nesting sites for marine turtles, seabird rookeries, and the conservation of dugongs — large marine mammals often known as “sea cows.”
“We have consulted extensively with a wide range of stakeholders, including Tiwi Island indigenous groups and fishermen. Since this is a very remote area, many people rely on the ocean for their food, so they are concerned about potential harm to the area and very involved with development plans,” said Kayleen Ewin, vice president of External Relations.
Marine Studies Program
Advanced scientific environmental baseline studies, including collaborative studies with the Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS), characterized the existing marine environment within and surrounding the Barossa offshore development area using remote sensing technology, metocean and underwater noise studies, water quality and sediment habitat studies, and dispersion modeling. The studies involved the collection of detailed baseline data over an 18-month period to capture seasonal variability and inform the risk assessment for the project. Building on work undertaken as part of the Australian National Environmental Science Programme.
AIMS modeled regional data to characterize the benthic habitats of the Oceanic Shoals marine park, Barossa offshore development area, and gas pipeline corridor. This information was incorporated into the Barossa assessment and shared with the government agency responsible for marine parks management, Parks Australia. Additionally, an advisory panel of recognized experts including representatives from the Centre for Whale Research (CWR), Charles Darwin University (CDU), and Monash University, assisted in understanding environmental values and sensitivities and validating potential risks and impacts. Further targeted surveys of seabed features along the natural gas pipeline route will be conducted as the engineering design progresses to inform route optimization. Information gleaned from the surveys will further supplement knowledge of the existing marine environment along the proposed route.