Santos' $18.5 Billion Gladstone LNG Project 50% Complete

---

Researched by Industrial Info Resources Australia (Perth, Australia)--Santos Limited (ASX:STO) (Adelaide, Australia), one of Australia's largest gas companies, continues to grow with investments in a number of large-scale oil and gas projects throughout Australia and Southeast Asia. In Queensland, Santos has a 30% share in, and is the operator of, the Gladstone Liquefied Natural Gas (GLNG) project. This project is more than 50% complete and represents a capital investment of $18.5 billion (AU$18.16 billion) through the end of 2015.

Upon completion, the LNG plant will have a capacity of 7.8 million tonnes per annum. Korea Gas Corporation (KOGAS) (Seongnam, South Korea) and Petroliam Nasional Berhad (PETRONAS) (Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia) have signed a purchase agreement with GLNG for the supply of 7.2 million tonnes per year of LNG.

Santos expects to drill more than 200 wells in 2013 as part of the GLNG project. It currently operates a fleet of eight drilling rigs and four completion rigs in the Bowen and Surat Basins in southeast Queensland. Construction in the region continues at three upstream gas hub sites: Fairview Hub 4, Fairview Hub 5 and Roma Hub 2.

The gas fields sit approximately 250 miles (400 kilometres) from the LNG facility and require a gas transmission pipeline. By the end of the first quarter of 2013, approximately 90 miles (140 kilometres) of pipeline had been strung and more than 9,600 of the 35,000 required welds had been completed. On the approach to the Curtis Island LNG facility, the pipeline must cross an area of marshland and part of Gladstone Harbor known as "The Narrows," which requires a 2.6-mile (4.3-kilometre) tunnel under Gladstone Harbor. Tunnelling work commenced on April 15 and is expected to take about 12 months to complete, after which the tunnel will be flooded and the pipeline pulled through.

Construction is expected to peak this year, with more than 7,000 people working on the project. About 1,700 of those will be working on upstream construction.

Construction continues at the LNG facility on Curtis Island, with a workforce of more than 2,000 people. At the Train 1 site, all six refrigeration compressors, the ethylene and methane cold boxes and CO2 absorber have been placed on their foundations. Concrete pours for the ethylene and methane cold box foundations have been completed at the Train 2 site.

The module fabrication in Batangas, Philippines, is progressing with 49 of the 82 Train 1 modules under way.

First LNG from the GLNG project is on track and anticipated in 2015.

Industrial Info Resources (IIR), with global headquarters in Sugar Land, Texas, and eight offices outside of North America, is the leading provider of global market intelligence specializing in the industrial process, heavy manufacturing and energy markets. Industrial Info's quality-assurance philosophy, the Living Forward Reporting Principle™, provides up-to-the-minute intelligence on what's happening now, while constantly keeping track of future opportunities.