Santos has a portfolio of world-class LNG plants adjacent to prolific gas resources and diverse integrated oil and gas production assets.
Queensland/South Australia, Australia
Santos’ domestic east coast portfolio includes the Cooper and Eromanga Basins as well our non-operated eastern Queensland production.
Spanning the borders of northeast South Australia and southwest Queensland, the Cooper and Eromanga Basins house Australia’s largest onshore oil and gas field development.
Santos discovered the first commercial hydrocarbon resource (natural gas) at Gidgealpa-2 in 1963 and first oil in 1970. The Cooper Basin now produces natural gas, ethane, gas liquids and crude oil.
The Cooper Basin asset is strategically important, housing key infrastructure at Moomba in northeast South Australia. This Santos-operated infrastructure is integral to the processing and transportation of natural gas and ethane around the east coast of Australia, supported by substantial underground storage facilities suitable for natural gas, ethane and carbon dioxide.
Natural gas liquids recovered at the plant are sent together with stabilised crude oil and condensate via a 659 kilometre pipeline to Port Bonython, South Australia, for further processing. Products including naphtha, crude oil, propane and butane are sold to domestic customers via the road tanker loading facilities and export customers through the ship loading facility.
Santos’ strategy in the Cooper Basin is to deliver value by being a low-cost business, increasing reserves, investing in new technology to lower development and exploration costs, reducing emissions and increasing utilisation of infrastructure.
Queensland, Australia
With a large resource base in Queensland and a growing Asian demand for liquefied natural gas (LNG), Santos created the GLNG project in 2007, a pioneering project to convert natural gas, including coal seam gas from the Bowen and Surat Basins, into LNG for export to Asia.
GLNG is a joint venture between Santos and three of the world’s leading energy companies: PETRONAS from Malaysia, Total from France and KOGAS from South Korea.
The project involved the development of gas fields in the Bowen and Surat Basins, the construction of a 420-kilometre underground gas transmission pipeline to Gladstone and a two-train liquefaction and storage facility on Curtis Island in Gladstone. GLNG sells approximately two cargoes of LNG per week and has been supplying two long-term Asian customers since the first cargo was shipped in October 2015.
As upstream operator, Santos is focused on building gas supply through upstream development, seeking opportunities to extract value from our infrastructure and driving efficiencies.
Papua New Guinea
Santos has been a committed participant in Papua New Guinea since the 1980s, becoming a producer in 1998 through the SE Gobe oil project in the Gulf Province. Acquisition of a 24 per cent interest in PDL-1 in 1998 gave Santos access to a significant part of the giant Hides gas field and resulted in Santos becoming a foundation partner in the PNG LNG project. Following the company’s merger with Oil Search in December 2021, Santos’ overall interest in this project increased.
PNG LNG is an integrated development that includes gas production and processing facilities that extend from Hela, Southern Highlands, Western and Gulf provinces to Port Moresby. The facilities are connected by over 700 kilometres of onshore and offshore pipelines and include a gas conditioning plant in Hides and a two-train liquefaction and storage facility near Port Moresby.
LNG production began in April 2014 and since then, PNG LNG has been reliably supplying LNG to four long-term major customers in Asia.
Santos is positioned to grow its presence in PNG through PNG LNG backfill and expansion. The company is also a joint venture partner in the Papua LNG Project, which proposes to integrate its midstream development within PNG LNG.
Western Australia, Australia
Santos is the second biggest producer of domestic gas in Western Australia and has been operating in the west since its first offshore discovery in the Carnarvon Basin, in the early 1980s.
The company also has a strategic infrastructure position in WA, with interests in three of the state’s major domestic gas plants, at Varanus Island, Devil Creek and Macedon.
Gas, condensate and oil from the offshore John Brookes, Harriet and Spar-Halyard fields is piped to the Santos-operated Varanus Island processing facility. The sales gas is then transported to mainland WA via two 100-kilometre pipelines, where it is supplied to major mining and industrial customers. Oil and condensate are stored on the island and transferred to tankers for direct export.
Gas and condensate from the offshore Reindeer field are transported to the Santos-operated Devil Creek processing plant, near Karratha, via a 105-kilometre pipeline. Gas from the offshore Macedon field is piped to the Macedon Domestic Gas Plant near Onslow. Sales gas from both facilities is compressed and sent to the WA domestic gas market.
The Van Gogh oil project comprises three offshore fields – Van Gogh, Coniston and Novara – serviced by the Floating Production Storage and Offloading (FPSO) vessel, Ningaloo Vision, operated by Santos and located approximately 40 kilometres north of the North West Cape.
The Pyrenees oil project, comprising the Crosby, Ravensworth and Stickle offshore fields, and serviced by the Pyrenees Venture FPSO vessel, is stationed approximately 25 kilometres north off the North West Cape.
Santos will continue to pursue near-field exploration opportunities and build on its position as one of the leading suppliers of gas to the WA market.
