Santos unveils $702m investment plan to develop gas fields in Queensland

Santos, along with its GLNG partners, has revealed plans to invest A$900m ($702m) in upstream developments in the Maranoa, Western Downs, Central Highlands and Banana regions of Queensland, Australia this year.

The investment will be directed towards upstream developments around the Fairview, Scotia and Arcadia fields.

A portion of the investment will provide funding for the new A$750m ($585.72m) Roma East project for the first year.

The project is scheduled to be developed over the next three years and will add around 50 petajoules (PJ) a year to gas production in Queensland in 2020.

The company has launched the project after the first of 430 new wells was drilled this month.

Santos Onshore Upstream executive vice-president Brett Woods said: “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.”

Production from the Roma East project is projected to be equivalent to about 8% of expected east coast domestic gas demand this year.

The company expects to operate another 480 wells as part of the project.

The plan to drill around 430 new wells is part of this initiative.

Furthermore, the project will include linking existing appraisal wells and drilling pre-development wells in the surrounding areas.

The partners will undertake the development of around 420km of water, gas gathering and other pipelines, as well as 120TJ per day of additional compression.

Other infrastructure to be built includes 670km of power lines and around 25km of fibre-optic cables.

The investment is expected to ensure more gas supply for the Australian market.