DILI, 14 june 2022 (TATOLI) – The Managing Director and CEO of Australian Santos Ltd, Kevin Gallagher, presented the Bayu-Undan Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) project to the President of the Republic, José Ramos Horta, at the Presidential Palace, after speaking at the 4th Timor-Leste Energy and Mining Summit, held at the City-8 Hall, in Dili.
During the meeting, Gallagher spoke with President Horta about the current operations in Bayu-Undan and their planning on the implementation of the CCS project as Bayu-Undan is expected to run dry by October 2022.
“We talked about the decommissioning of the Bayu-Undan project and the decommissioning of the facilities and the jobs that we have created,” Gallagher told reporters after speaking to President Horta, in Dili.
He said President Horta was very interested in the jobs that will be created with the CCS project: “It was a positive meeting and President was very interested with our aspiration and our hopes to develop Bayu-Undan and Carbon Capture and Storage project.”
“So, I thank the President for the meeting, as it was very interesting and very positive. The first thing is we have to wait for the Bayu-Undan to come to the end of which natural field life and we want that to be as wait as possible obviously to keep the gas flowing from Bayu-Undan,” he emphasized.
Gallagher stressed that once the Bayu-Undan project ended, Santos would begin the planning phase for the initial part of the decommissioning work which will focus initially on securing the wells and washing the systems to ensure that everything is safe.
“And then we will start the deconstruction work such as removing the facilities from the platform. But of course, with the CCS project, it would not be a full decommissioning, or a partial decommissioning because we will use those meaningful facilities to be part of the CCS project,” he concluded.
The development drilling of the Bayu-Undan field began on 17 may, 2002, and the estimated benefit to Timor-Leste from the full Bayu-Undan development was around US$21 billion over the life of the field.
In september 2021, the National Petroleum and Minerals Authority (ANPM) and Santos signed an agreement on the Bayu-Undan Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) Project at the Bayu-Undan field.
In his presentation at the 4th Timor-Leste Energy and Mining Summit, Gallagher revealed that Bayu-Undan Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) projects will be captured 10 million metric tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) per year.
The Bayu-Undan Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) project is estimated to cost US$1.6 billion.
The gas production from the Bayu-Undan offshore field is expected to run dry by october 2022.
In his statement at the signing of the agreement on the Bayu-Undan Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) Project, the President of ANPM, Florentino Soares Ferreira said that the project will put Timor-Leste on the world map as one of the leading countries on the decarbonization efforts towards a net-zero target by 2050: “I look forward to the benefits that this project would bring for Timor-Leste, including job creation, revenue to the government, partnership opportunities, and knowledge transfer as well as capacity building in Timor-Leste – particularly a partnership with our National Oil Company TIMOR GAP, E.P.”
Journalist: Filomeno Martins
Editor: Nelia Borges
