PERTH (miningweekly.com) - Oil and gas major Santos has reported the first gas production at its Wortel project, in Indonesia.

The Wortel project, which was sanctioned in November 2010, includes two gas wells, an unmanned wellhead platform and a 10 km gas pipeline to the existing Santos-operated Oyong facilties.

Gross production from the combined Oyong and Wortel fields were expected to reach some 90 TJ/d, and the gas would be exported through an existing pipeline to the Grati processing plant, where it would be sold for domestic power generation.

The completion of the Wortel development would also extend the economic life of the Oyong facilities.

Santos CEO David Knox noted on Wednesday that Wortel was the fourth project in the base business to start production during the past eight months, driving production growth in 2012.

“The successful on-budget delivery of Wortel is another milestone in our focused growth strategy in Asia,” Knox said. Asia was expected to account for some 60% of the world’s primary energy growth by 2035.

Santos holds a 45% interest in the Wortel project, with partner Sampang SPC holding 40% and fellow listed Cue Energy Resources holding the remaining 15%.

To subscribe to Mining Weekly's print magazine email subscriptions@creamermedia.co.za or buy now.