March 24, 2026 [Reuters]- 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%.