Members of the NSW National Party’s Primary Industry Resources and Energy Policy Committee and Santos’ Mark Rodgers with forage crops irrigated using treated water from coal seams.
Members of the NSW National Party’s Primary Industry Resources and Energy Policy Committee have followed up their visit to the Pilliga with a tour of our operations near Roma, Queensland.
Santos’ coal seam gas activities have been underway in the Roma area for almost twenty years and the group wanted to gain a better understanding of the scope and benefits of a project that is more established than our Narrabri operations.
The tour kicked off with a presentation by Roma-based Community Team Leader, Jamie Miller. Jamie explained what was planned, using the Virtual Field Explorer installed in the Roma shopfront.
The group then headed out to visit various sites including a multi-well pad featuring horizontal wells. It was explained to the group that multi-well pads help Santos to reduce the footprint of our work by reducing the number of individual well pads required on the surface. Horizontal drilling can also produce more gas by drilling down and along underground coal seams for up to a kilometre. Horizontal drilling will be an important part of the proposed Narrabri Gas Project, as will multi-well pads.
Next on the agenda was Roma Hub 2 where the group viewed water storage facilities and compressors. This was followed by the Managed Aquifer Recharge (MAR) site where the group was given an update on a project being trialled to re-inject treated CSG water into the local aquifers to improve the water supplies in the area.
The group then visited the reverse osmosis and water amendment facility and the Mount Hope Irrigation Site, a private property where treated water from coal seams is used to irrigate crops.
During their time in Roma, the group met representatives from the Maranoa Council including Mayor Robert Loughnan, Deputy Mayor Scott Wason and Councillor Cameron O’Neil who explained how the benefits of Santos’ work in the Roma area are flowing to the wider community through improvements to roads, bridges and the upgraded airport.