Darwin LNG Terminal

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Darwin LNG Terminal, also known as DLNG, is an LNG export terminal in Australia with units that are proposed and idled.

Location

Table 1: Location details

Name	Location	Coordinates (WGS 84)
T1	Darwin, Wickham Point, Northern Territory, Australia	-12.520995138908155, 130.86644866442109 (exact)
T2	Darwin, Wickham Point, Northern Territory, Australia	-12.520995138908155, 130.86644866442109 (exact)

The map below shows the exact location of the terminal:

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Project Details

Table 2: Infrastructure details

mtpa = million tonnes per year

Name	Facility type	Status	Capacity	Total terminal capacity	Offshore	Associated infrastructure
T1	export	idled	3.7 mtpa	9.7 mtpa	False	Barossa Oil and Gas Field (Northern Territory, Australia), EP 161 acreage
T2	export	proposed	6 mtpa	9.7 mtpa	False	Barossa Oil and Gas Field (Northern Territory, Australia), EP 161 acreage

Table 3: Cost

Name	Facility type	Cost	Total known terminal costs
T1	export	US$1,600,000,000	US$1,600,000,000
T2	export	–	US$1,600,000,000

Financing

No financing data available.

Table 4: Project timeline

FID = Final Investment Decision, used by some developers to indicate a project will move forward

Name	Facility type	Status	Proposal year	FID year	Construction year	Operating year	Inactive year
T1	export	idled	–	2003 (FID)	2003	2006	2023 (idled)
T2	export	proposed	2017	–	–	–	–

Ownership

Table 5: Ownership

Name	Facility type	Status	Owners	Parent companies	Operator
T1	export	idled	SK E&S [25%]; Tokyo Gas Co Ltd [3%]; JERA Co Inc [6%]; Santos [43%]; Eni SpA [11%]; INPEX Corp [11%]	Santos [43.4%]; SK E&S [25.0%]; INPEX Corp [11.4%]; Eni SpA [11.0%]; Tokyo Gas Co Ltd [3.1%]; Chubu Electric Power Co Inc [3.0%]; Tokyo Electric Power Co [3.0%]	Santos
T2	export	proposed	SK E&S [25%]; Tokyo Gas Co Ltd [3%]; JERA Co Inc [6%]; Santos [43%]; Eni SpA [11%]; INPEX Corp [11%]	Santos [43.4%]; SK E&S [25.0%]; INPEX Corp [11.4%]; Eni SpA [11.0%]; Tokyo Gas Co Ltd [3.1%]; Chubu Electric Power Co Inc [3.0%]; Tokyo Electric Power Co [3.0%]	Santos

Background

Train 1

The Darwin LNG Terminal is an onshore LNG terminal in Northern Territory, Australia. It has one liquefaction and purification train, a 311 mile (500 kilometre) offshore facility, and a subsea pipeline from Bayu-Undan field in the East Timor Sea to Darwin in Australia's Northern Territory.

The final investment decision was made in 2003. Construction began in June 2003. The plant was officially commissioned in January 2006. According to the company website, since 2006, an average of one cargo per week has been shipped to its Tokyo Electric and Tokyo Gas customers. As of 2017, Australia is the second largest LNG exporter after Qatar. The country exports almost 44 million tons a year.

In March 2020 Santos announced that would sell its 25% stake in the Darwin LNG facility and in the Bayu-Undan gas field off Northern Australia to SK E&S of South Korea for $390 million.

In 2021, Santos announced that the Bayu-Undan gas field offshore Timor-Leste would provide a new supply source for and extend the life of the Darwin LNG plant.

According to IGU's 2023 World LNG Report, in 2022 Darwin LNG experienced feedgas supply issues from the Bayu-Undan gas field. They add, "Gas production from the Bayu-Undan gas field is estimated to cease at end-2023 with the operator considering backfilling options to support future LNG production once Bayu-Undan has been fully depleted. Santos had decided to proceed with the $311 million Darwin pipeline duplication project to enable gas from its offshore Barossa field to flow to DLNG with the first gas expected in 1H 2025."

In November 2023, the last LNG cargo produced from the Bayu-Undan gas field was shipped out.

Train 1 life extension project

In March 2024, UGL was awarded a contract for Darwin LNG "life extension project" which would prepare the facility to operate for the next 20 years, and would include deployment of a floating production storage and offloading (FPSO) vessel upstream at the Barossa oil and gas field. Work on the extension project was expected to start immediately in March 2024.

The terminal would source its gas from the Barossa Oil and Gas Field (Northern Territory, Australia). As of April 2024, production was expected to restart in the first quarter of 2025.

Santos reported that Darwin LNG secured in October 2024 debt financing worth US$800 million from a range of international commercial banks to support the life extension work. Santos CEO Kevin Gallagher said: "With these [debt] facilities in place, Darwin LNG is well-funded to complete the life extension works scheduled for mid-2025 and it positions Darwin LNG to consider future expansion of this important infrastructure, including through the potential provision of third-party carbon capture services in Darwin."

In April 2025, the Barossa gas project secured its final regulatory approval. Production was expected to start in September 2025.

In July 2025, the company stated that the Barossa gas project was 97% complete and on track to start up in Q3 of 2025.

In September 2025, the FPSO associated with the Barossa gas project received first gas from the field.

Darwin LNG officially restarted in January 2026 after the first LNG cargo left the facility bound for Japan. However, the facility was temporarily shut down again in March 2026 as a result of issues with the FPSO.

Train 2

According to the International Gas Union's 2017 report, because of declining natural gas feedstock, Darwin considered backfilling existing liquefaction and purification trains instead of building more expansion trains. Darwin has not halted plans for train expansion. In April 2017, the company announced it would conduct a feasibility study to asses whether a second train should be added to the facility. The Northern Territory government will contribute 40% of the feasibility study cost. ConocoPhillips and upstream resource owners, Evans Shoal, Caldita-Barossa, Poseidon, Cash Maple and Bonaparte LNG Terminal's offshore facility, will fund the remaining 60%.

Woodside and ConocoPhillips, operators of Australia’s two oldest LNG plants, Darwin LNG Terminal and North West Shelf LNG Terminal, are considering cheaper development options for their Browse and Barossa gas fields to compete against Qatar. Qatar added to the fears of Australia’s LNG owners in July 2017 when it announced a 23 million ton-a-year increase in gas exports.

ConocoPhillips owns 37.5 percent of the Barossa gas field. The company prefers Barossa gas to feed the Darwin LNG Terminal.

In April 2017 Australia’s Northern Territory government set aside A$250,000 for a feasibility study into the potential expansion of the Darwin LNG plant. In February 2018 it was reported that Santos was considering exporting Bonaparte Basin gas through the Darwin terminal. In November 2018 it was reported that ConocoPhillips was still considering the expansion. In mid-March 2020, Macquarie Wealth Management warned that a prolonged collapse in oil prices could result in delays to capital expenditure infrastructure projects, including Santos's AUS$7 billion Barossa gas project. Confirmation that the Barossa project has been officially delayed came on March 23 when Santos chief executive Kevin Gallagher announced that all of the company's expansion projects were being put on hold, with no indication given as to when Barossa would be advancing.

In May 2021 Upstream Online reported that ConocoPhillips and its partners were still considering expanding Darwin LNG with a second train and that a feasibility study was set to be completed that year.

There have not been any new developments related to this field since August 2021, and so this project is presumed to be shelved.

In January 2025, Tamboran Resources Corp. and Santos Ltd. have signed an agreement to explore the potential of supplying the second train using gas from their EP 161 acreage. The proposed capacity at this time was up to 6 mtpa. The non-binding memorandum of understanding for technical studies between the two companies “aims to explore commercialization options for the development of DLNG Train 2".

Environmental Concerns

In 2006, shortly after Train 1 came online, a leak was reported from the storage tank. ConocoPhillips addressed the leak and claimed the emissions were "minute".

However, in 2025, leaked documents revealed that there was a known design flaw in the storage tank that causes a continuous methane leak - producing estimated emissions equivalent to 8,300 new cars on the road every year. Regulators were made aware of the leak in 2020, but still signed off on extending the terminal's life to 2050 without requiring Santos to replace or repair the tank.

Articles and Resources

Additional data

To access additional data, including an interactive map of LNG terminals, a downloadable dataset, and summary data, please visit the Global Gas Infrastructure Tracker on the Global Energy Monitor website.