Santos, GLNG Flag Major Oz Spend

Australian Santos and its Gladstone LNG partners will make a capital investment of A$900mn ($707mn) in upstream developments in the Maranoa, Western Downs, Central Highlands and Banana regions this year, Santos said February 27.

“As well as upstream developments around the Fairview, Scotia and Arcadia fields, this investment includes the first year of funding for the A$750mn Roma East project which will be developed over the next thee years,” Santos said.

The company’s vice president for onshore upstream Brett Woods joined the state’s minister for mines and energy Anthony Lynham to launch the Roma East project, following the drilling of the first of 430 new wells this month, Santos 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,” Woods said, adding that Roma East will add almost 50 PJ/yr of gas production in Queensland in 2020, which is equivalent to around 8% of expected east coast domestic gas demand this year. “This is great news for both the domestic gas market and our LNG exports,” he said.

Santos and its GLNG partners have already invested almost A$20bn in regional Queensland since 2011, the company said. France’s Total, Malaysia’s Petronas and South Korea’s Kogas also hold interests in GLNG.