Santos and Gold Fields sign new gas deal

Australian oil and gas exploration firm Santos has signed an agreement to supply gas to Gold Fields Limited’s mines for the next three years.

Gas will be supplied to Gold Fields for its three gold mines in Western Australia.

Santos continued to support Western Australian mining and industry through the delivery of competitively priced domestic gas.

The Australian firm said that it would supply nearly 5.5 petajoules (PJ) of natural gas from its Varanus Island gas plant, starting from 1 July.

Santos managing director and CEO Kevin Gallagher said: “We are delighted Gold Fields Limited has come back to Santos after a short hiatus, reinforcing our position as Western Australia’s biggest supplier of gas to the local market.

“Santos supplies around 40% of the state’s total domestic demand, and we are committed to ongoing investment in developing new gas supplies in Western Australia.

“In these challenging economic times, we are focused on ensuring local gas prices remain competitive for Western Australian businesses over the long term.”

Recently, Santos welcomed the New South Wales (NSW) government’s recommendation to approve its planning application for the Narrabri gas project in Australia.

In May last year, Santos signed a binding letter of intent (LoI) to acquire a 14.32% equity interest in Petroleum Retention Licence 3 (PRL 3), which contains the P’nyang gas field in Papua New Guinea (PNG), for a total consideration of $187m.