PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Oil and gas major Santos has put further weight behind its plans to develop the Narrabri gas project, in New South Wales, revealing a new flowline from the natural gas appraisal wells, near Narrabri, to the Wilga Park power station.
Santos said on Monday that the new flowline would be able to power some 6 000 more local households, and would enable Santos to increase the generating capacity of the Wilga Park power station from 12 MW to 16 MW.
Narrabri natural gas already supplies Wilga Park to generate enough electricity to power the equivalent of 17 500 households in north-west New South Wales and that will now increase to about 23 000 households.
Santos MD and CEO Kevin Gallagher said the company is focussed on securing approval of the Narrabri gas project to unlock the wealth of this resource for the people of New South Wales, delivering natural gas to the state’s industries and providing jobs, small business opportunities and community investment for the people of the Narrabri region.
“The Narrabri gas project is currently being assessed by the New South Wales Department of Planning ahead of a decision of the Independent Planning Commission. One hundred per cent of Narrabri gas would go into the domestic market, potentially supplying up to half of NSW natural gas demand,” Gallagher said.
“That would be fantastic for New South Wales customers and it would be the best way to put downward pressure on energy prices.”
Gallagher argued that gas import terminals were not the answer to the East Coast gas crisis, adding that the only way to have an energy advantage over other countries is to put in place strict environmental standards to safely produce as much energy resources as possible, at as low a price as possible.
“Importing gas will lead to higher prices or shortages, particularly when liquefied natural gas demand in Asia is high. It is a certain way of ensuring that at some time in the future foreign suppliers would have a gun to the head of Australian manufacturers.”
Santos has further plans to connect natural gas appraisal wells from another field, which could see Wilga Park power the equivalent of about 32 000 households with reliable electricity generated from clean natural gas.
“It makes good environmental sense to use this gas beneficially to generate power for local communities and reduce waste and emissions,” Gallagher said.