December 9, 2009: The participants in the Darwin liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal have planned to shutdown for 35-days in 2010 to increase the capacity of the terminal to 3.6 million metric tons a year, Bloomberg reported Dec. 9.

The Darwin LNG terminal will be located in Wickam Point, Northern Territory. Participating interest are affiliates of ConocoPhillips (56.72%), ENI Australia (12.04%), Inpex (10.53%), Santos (10.64%), Tokyo Electric Power (6.72%), and Tokyo Gas (3.36%).

Plans for expansion are under review.

1 (Operational)

$1.1 billion (Bechtel, Austr. $1.4 billion)

April 24, 2009: Woodside reported that work on their offshore Sunrise gas field continues to advance toward a decision between floating LNG and Darwin LNG. Speaking to "Australian Business," Don Voelte, CEO of Woodside, said that out of the options being considered - a tieback to Conoco's Wickham Point LNG plant in Darwin, a greenfield plant in East Timor and a floating LNG plant - the floating plant was the cheapest. The plant in East Timor subsequently was ruled out.

Jan. 17, 2007: ConocoPhillips is partnering with Santos in a bid to find more reserves that could justify an expansion of the plant, which is fully committed to Tokyo Gas and Tokyo Electric Power Company. A layout for a 10-MTPA LNG plant was approved in 2002. The gas that currently supplies the Train 1 comes from the Bayu Undan field in the Joint Petroleum Development Area (JPDA) administered by Australia and East Timor. ConocoPhillips also owns interests in the Greater Sunrise and Caldita fields which lie near Bayu-Undan. James Mulva, ConocoPhillips' chairman and CEO, said in June that the company expected two million metric tons to be delivered to Japan in 2006. "The facility performance continues to improve through the commissioning process and is expected to produce three million metric tons of LNG annually at normal operating capacity," Mulva continued. For more news, check the News page associated with this project.