Santos commissions Scotia project in Queensland, Australia

Santos has completed commissioning and start-up of the A$416m ($258.29m) Scotia CF1 project in Queensland, Australia.

The company has delivered the project ahead of schedule and under budget. The company initially estimated the project to cost around A$493m ($306.1m), but it was completed for A$416m ($258.29m).

The start-up of the Scotia project is expected to support Australia’s domestic gas and export liquefied natural gas (LNG) markets.

Located in the Bowen Basin, the project has an initial full-field production of more than 40 terajoules (TJ) a day. By late-2019, the project is set to supply around 70 TJ/day at peak production to the Santos GLNG project.

Santos managing director and CEO Kevin Gallagher said: “Site infrastructure is also running three months ahead of schedule and some of the well completions are a year ahead of time.

“This is a testament to the Santos team and reflects our laser focus on cost-of-supply, innovation and efficiency over the last two and a half years.”

Work carried out under the project included the expansion of the Scotia compression plant and field from 23 to more than 100 wells.

Employing more than 400 people, the project also involved building 85km of linear infrastructure, two 4G communications towers and an irrigation system for water treatment.