Ballera

Location

Cooper/Eromanga Basins, onshore central Australia, south-west Queensland, approximately 90 kilometres east of the South Australia–Queensland border and about 950 kilometres north of Adelaide.

Participants

Santos – 60.0625% (operator)
Delhi – 23.2%
Origin – 16.375%

Discovered

The first commercial gas discovery was made in the Roseneath field in 1969.
The first commercial Jurassic oil discovery was made in the Jackson field in 1981.

First Production

Gas sales to Adelaide commenced in 1994.
Gas sales to Brisbane commenced in 1997.
Gas sales to Mt Isa commenced in 1998.

Cost to Develop

Total investment to date is approx A$1 billion.

Facility Details

The facility accepts production from approximately 45 gas fields containing about 130 producing gas wells through approximately 450 kilometres of pipelines and flowlines.

All field boost compression is located at the plant. Further nodal compression is operational at Ballera West, Challum and Munkah/Wackett. The Ballera facility also incorporates a moderate size underground storage for processed sales gas at the Chookoo field.

Some natural gas liquids are recovered at Ballera with raw gas and condensate sent to Moomba via the 180 kilometre Ballera–Moomba pipeline to allow additional recovery of liquids via a refrigeration process.

Sales gas is sent to Mt Isa via an 800 kilometre pipeline and to Wallumbilla for transportation on to Brisbane via a 1,100 kilometre pipeline.

No crude oil is processed at Ballera. All oil is sent to the Jackson facility 65 kilometres to the south-east.

The central processing plant comprises:

• inlet separators
• two potassium carbonate CO2 removal trains
• one membrane CO2 removal train
• glycol gas dehydration
• two Dew Point Control separation trains
• export compression.

Water is provided by bores and a membrane treatment plant. 45 MW electricity generation capacity is on site. The plant is serviced by a jet-capable sealed airstrip.