The natural gas compression facility of the A$750 million Roma East project in Australia is fully operational, according to project operator Santos Ltd.
The facility was officially handed over to the Santos operations team, and commissioning was safely completed, the company said a Sept. 19 release.
Rob Simpson, Santos' vice president of coal seam gas developments, said the facility is taking gas from 200 new wells, and production from Roma is now about 118 terajoules.
Santos said construction on the project will continue until mid-2020. When finished, the project is expected to deliver about 50 petajoules of additional gas production each year.
The Roma East project involves bringing 480 wells online, which includes drilling 430 new wells, connecting existing appraisal wells and drilling pre-development wells in the surrounding areas. The Roma East field recorded first gas in February.
In addition to Santos, other venture partners include Malaysia's national oil company, Petroliam Nasional Bhd., French oil major TOTAL SA and Korea Gas Corp.
