Project Profile
Value: US$6 billion
Location: Basin in the Timor Sea, off the northern coast of Australia
Reserves: 360 million barrels of oil equivalent from all the fields
FPSO capacity: Two million tonnes of LNG per year
Water Depth: 50m to 100m
Start-up Year: 2018
The Bonaparte Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) project covers the deployment of a floating, production, storage and offloading (FPSO) LNG facility in the Bonaparte Basin in the Timor Sea, off the northern coast of Australia. The facility will be used to develop the Petrel, Tern and Frigate natural gas fields. Water depths in the area range from 50m to 100m. In August 2009, GDF Suez and Santos formed a partnership to develop the project. Under the terms of the partnership, GDF Suez acquired 60% ownership of the three fields from Santos for $200m. GDF Suez Bonaparte, a subsidiary of GDF Suez, will be the operator of the project. First production is expected in 2018.
Partners in the project include GDF Suez (60%), Santos (40%). The Petrel field was discovered by Arco Australia with the drilling of the Petrel 1 well in 1969. The field lies in the NT / RL1 and WA-6-R lease area, and five wells have been drilled to date. The Tern field was discovered by Arco Australia in 1971 by drilling the Tern 1 well. The field lies 50km from the Petrel field in the WA-27-R lease area. Exploration activities at the field included drilling five wells. Santos discovered the Frigate gas field in 2008 with the drilling of the Frigate Deep 1 well. Gas is found in the Pearce and Torrens formations. The gas to condensate ratio ranges between 0.5 and nine barrels per million standard cubic feet. The Tern field reservoir is of the Tern formation of the Hyland Bay Subgroup. Gas is contained in the Dombey and Cape Hay formations. Gas in the Frigate field is found in the Mount Goodwin and Tern formations.
Reserves
The Petrel field reservoir is estimated to hold 970 billion cubic feet (bcf) of gas and 5.9 million barrels of condensate. Recoverable reserves of the Tern field are estimated at 468bcf of gas and 5.7 million barrels of condensate, while the Frigate field is estimated to contain 100bcf of gas. The project is expected to recover 360 million barrels of oil equivalent from the fields. The Bonaparte project covers the development of the three fields using a FPSO facility. The facility will have the capacity to process two million tonnes of LNG per year and will be installed in the northern region of the Bonaparte basin. The FPSO will be developed based on in-house design and engineering works conducted by GDF Suez. International partnerships will also be formed in the development of the FPSO. The initial development phase of the project will be for a period of three years during which pre-front end engineering and design (FEED) studies will be carried out. The JV expects to make its final investment decision for the project in 2014. Should it go ahead with the proposal, LNG production could begin in 2018.
Contracts
In January 2011, GDF Suez contracted Granherne, a subsidiary of KBR, to carry out the pre-FEED study for the project. The scope of work includes subsea engineering, field development planning, flow assurance and related engineering studies. DORIS Engineering won the midstream pre-FEED contract for the project.
Operators:
GDF-Suez: Operator with 60% interest
Santos: 40% interest
Contractors:
Joint venture for midstream pre-FEED:
Granherne
DORIS Engineering
KBR: Execute floating liquefied natural gas (FLNG) production vessel design work
Wood Group Kenny: Carry out a subsea definition study as part of pre-front-end engineering and design work