SANTOS has opened what is Australia’s first operations centre that will provide real time streaming of its Gladstone LNG gas fields and infrastructure assets 24 hours per day

The $A12 million GLNG Brisbane Operations Centre can monitor and control the production from gas fields, the pipeline network to Gladstone and the production facilities on Curtis Island as they come online.  It contains 90 large screens, one of the world’s largest touch screens, six simultaneous video conference facilities and 30km of wiring.

Santos GLNG president Mark Macfarlane said the centre would allow the company to pinpoint exactly where maintenance or infrastructure work on a well site was needed.  Staff would then be sent to the exact location and to carry out the work.

“This enhances safety and minuses our impact on the community by reducing traffic movements and vehicle requirements and the number of people that would generally be entering a landholder’s property day to day,” he said.

Santos general manager of operations Rob Simpson said BOC would change the way the GLNG gas fields in the Bowen and Surat Basins were operated.  “It also gives us the ability to centrally monitor the production and progress of our assets in the Maranoa region in real time, 24 hours a day, seven days a week.  “Due to this much faster, structured and targeted approach, it means our facilities operate to the highest standards of production because we detect issues early and we are monitoring them in real time.”

Queensland Deputy Premier Jeff Seeney said the centre was a significant development which highlighted the technology and control advancements now available and being put to use by Australia’s modern resources industry.

“Being able to start-up and shutdown equipment in the gas fields and across Santos-GLNG operations will allow early detection of potential problems and provide quick responses,” he said.

“From their control centre in Brisbane, Santos-GLNG can quickly direct field workers to where they are needed.

“Importantly it will help minimise potential impacts on Queensland communities.”