Santos and its GLNG partners will invest $900 million in upstream gas developments in the Maranoa, Western Downs, Central Highlands and Banana regions this year.
This includes the first year of funding for the new $750 million Roma East project, to be developed over the next three years, as well as work in the Fairview, Scotia and Arcadia gas fields.
Santos’ executive vice-president onshore upstream, Brett Woods, joined Mines and Energy Minister Dr Anthony Lynham to launch the Roma East project, following the drilling of the first of 430 new wells this month.
“This important project will create up to 400 construction jobs and local business opportunities in the Roma area, helping to sustain and boost the benefits of Santos’ and GLNG’s earlier investments in the region,” Mr Woods said.
“Roma East will also add nearly 50 PJ a year to gas production in Queensland in 2020 – equivalent to about 8 per cent of expected east coast domestic gas demand this year. This is great news for both the domestic gas market and our LNG exports.”
The Roma East project will involve bringing online another 480 wells including drilling around 430 new wells, connecting existing appraisal wells, and drilling pre-development wells in the surrounding areas.
The project will also include about 420km of water, gas gathering and other pipelines, 120 TJ per day of additional compression, 670km of power lines and about 25km of fibre optic cables.
Queensland Resources Council data shows that in 2016-17, Queensland’s gas industry contributed $8.9 billion to the state’s economy and supported almost 43,000 full-time Queensland jobs.
