MELBOURNE: Senex Energy Ltd has announced the successful completion of its 100% owned Surat Basin natural gas development project, establishing Senex as an important supplier of gas to the domestic market.

Senex has now completed its 80 well Surat Basin drilling campaign, down from —110 wells originally planned due to continued production outperformance. In conjunction with its infrastructure partner Jemena, Senex has also successfully built and commissioned natural gas facilities at Roma North and Atlas, delivering greenfield gas processing infrastructure capacity of more than 20 petajoules (PJ) a year.

Senex Managing Director and CEO Ian Davies said its Surat Basin natural gas development project was executed superbly, with strong support from partners and stakeholders. “In October 2018, Senex reached its Final Investment Decision for this $400 million capital program. Less than two years later, Roma North and Atlas have been successfully delivered — an industry leading achievement and a credit to all involved.

“We are proud to have worked closely with our partners Jemena and Eastemwell, landholders, community and other stakeholders to successfully develop these critical natural gas resources for the east coast market. “Further, we are appreciative of the strong policy settings of successive Queensland Governments, enabling the development of these valuable resources.

“With proved and probable (2P) natural gas reserves in excess of 600 PJ across our Surat Basin acreage, Senex will be delivering natural gas to the domestic market for decades to come,” Mr Davies said.

Roma North has been consistently producing above nameplate capacity at around 18 terajoules per day (TJ/day). Atlas production has exceeded 15 TJ/day and continues to increase steadily towards nameplate capacity of 32 TJ/day, with an additional 8 TJ/day of installed capacity available.

Initial water treatment facilities at Atlas have been commissioned, with final construction completion expected in early FY21.