The field is located in 80 meters of water about 250 kilometers south of Suai, Timor-Leste, and 500 kilometers northwest of Darwin, Australia. Bayu-Undan is a gas condensate field that contains estimated recoverable hydrocarbons of 400 million barrels of condensate and liquefied petroleum gas, and 3.4 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. The reserves have an estimated value of US$6-7 billion. The field straddles production sharing contract areas 03-12 and 03-13 in the JPDA between Timor-Leste and Australia. Facilities include three platforms for (1) drilling, production, and processing, (2) compression,utilities and accommodation and, (3) remote wellhead production purposes and a permanently moored floatingstorage and offloading (FSO) vessel.The unnamed well head platform was installed in April 2002 and drilling started on 17 May 2002. The jackets for the other two platforms were installed on the seabed. Top sides for both of the main platforms were installed by early September of that year.The FSO, Liberdade, was launched in Korea in September 2002, and was located on site before the end of September 2003. It can store about 230,000 cubic metres of condensate and LPG. ‘Liberdade’ processes the condensate and LPG and stores them before they are loaded onto tankers for export. The Liberdade is the world’s first combined condensate and liquefied petroleum gas FSO- designed to exploit remote oil and gas reserves that might otherwise be stranded for decades.The development of the Bayu-Undan field will proceed in two phases: a gas liquids phase followed by a gas phase. The Timor Sea Designated Authority, which represents Timor-Leste and Australia in the JPDA, approved the development plan for the gas liquids phase in February 2000, and the development plan for the gas phase in June 2003. The development cost was US$1.8 billion for phase I and US$1.5 billion for phase II. The Gas Liquids Phase: involves the production of wet reservoir gas and the stripping of LPG and condensates. The lean gas is then reinjected into the reservoir. Phase 1 involved the construction of a Wellhead platform, a Drilling, Production and Processing platform and a Compression, Utilities and Quarters platform. The recovered liquids are piped to a Floating Storage and Offloading facility. Approximately 22 wells are required over the anticipated 25-year life of the project and 13 will be drilled in the first drilling program. The Gas Phase: involves the extraction of gas from the reservoir and transportation to Darwin, Australia via a pipeline, where, it is liquefied at a processing plant and then shipped as liquefied natural gas (LNG) to customers Tokyo Electric Power Company and Tokyo Gas Co. Ltd. (TE/TG) in Japan. ConocoPhillips has entered into agreements with TE/TG to supply three million tonnes of Bayu-Undan LNG per year (over 17 years). The construction of the pipeline to Darwin, is estimated to cost about US$500 million. The LNG liquefaction plant in Darwin is estimated to cost about US$1 billion.
Bayu-Undan, Timor Sea, ConocoPhillips, Australia,