Santos says it has reached a crucial milestone in putting the Barossa gas field off Darwin into production.
A massive floating factory that is the production centrepiece of the $4.7 billion project has received its first gas, the company announced on Monday.
The BW Opal is one of the most advanced floating production, storage and offloading (FPSO) units ever constructed, Santos said.
At 358m long and 64m wide, the Opal is the length of three-and-a-half rugby fields, and was assembled in Singapore by Norwegian company BW Offshore.
It includes accommodation for up to 140 people and can handle up to 850 million cubic feet of gas per day, Santos said.
The floating unit will be permanently located in the Barossa gas field about 285km offshore from Darwin, and feed the city's LNG plant for the next two decades.
"First gas into the FPSO is an important step for the project and a credit to the hard work of our people and support from our partners," said Santos CEO Kevin Gallagher.
"It puts us on track to deliver reliable energy to our customers and long-term value to our shareholders from Barossa LNG."
It is welcome news for the Santos after a $30 billion takeover offer by a Middle East consortium collapsed last week after months of negotiations.
Santos said the NT Environmental Protection Authority had renewed the Darwin LNG's licence, commencing last Friday.
Six wells have been drilled into the Barossa gas field and testing has been completed on five of them, demonstrating excellent flow capacity that exceeds estimates, Santos said.
First proposed by Santos in 2018, the Barossa gas project is expected to be producing gas for 25 years.
