Australian gas producer Santos Ltd on Monday said it will explore sharing infrastructure to develop gas fields around the Barossa and Evans Shoal projects with Italian energy group Eni SpA.
The move comes after Eni called off the sale of its Australian gas assets earlier this year, as it failed to attract strong bids.
Along with Barossa and Evans Shoal, the companies will assess synergies in sharing infrastructure around the Darwin LNG plant, Santos said.
They will also look at options to extend the life of the Bayu-Undan field in the Timor Sea, which is expected to run dry in the next two years.
In March, Santos gave the final go-ahead for its $3.6 billion Barossa gas project off northern Australia, the biggest new gas project in the country in nearly a decade.
It said on Monday it will work with Eni to look at options for setting up a carbon capture and storage project.
"Capturing and storing CO2 from industries in the Northern Territory will help it meet its net-zero emissions by 2050 target," Chief Executive Kevin Gallagher said.
(Reporting by Sameer Manekar and Shashwat Awasthi in Bengaluru; Editing by Tom Hogue and Rashmi Aich) ((Sameer.Manekar@thomsonreuters.com; +918061823447;))
