Santos temporarily shuts Darwin LNG plant amid Mideast supply squeeze
Australia's Santos said on Tuesday it has temporarily shut its Darwin liquefied natural gas plant, interrupting exports from a newly restarted supply chain at a time when markets are tightening due to disruptions from the Middle East.
The outage comes as LNG exports to Europe and Asia are already under pressure following disruptions to shipments from Qatar, after a series of Iran-linked attacks on Gulf energy infrastructure in response to Israeli strikes earlier this month.
Australia is one of the world's largest LNG exporters and a critical supplier to Asian buyers.
Santos, the country's No. 2 oil and gas producer, said the shutdown was linked to equipment replacement work on the BW Opal floating production vessel at the offshore Barossa gas and condensate project, which feeds the Darwin plant.
A company spokesperson said the shutdown was planned and related to commissioning activities, but did not specify how long the plant would remain offline.
However, an email from Santos to stakeholders suggested it could take "a number of weeks" for Darwin LNG to resume operations, a timeframe reported by the Australian Financial Review.
"We are in the final stages of commissioning for Barossa LNG to flush the system before coming back on and getting back to full rates," the spokesperson said.
Darwin LNG had resumed exports earlier this year after Barossa's delayed start-up, which had faced technical issues, including compressor seal problems that affected production stability.
In its quarterly production report, Santos said it expected total production between 101-million and 111-million barrels of oil equivalent (mmboe) for 2026, with Barossa expected to contribute around 19 mmboe.
Santos operates Barossa with a 50% stake, alongside South Korea's SK E&S, which holds 37.5%, and Japan's JERA with 12.5%.
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