The company claims that it has delivered the project ahead of schedule and under budget.
Located in the Bowen Basin, 340km northwest of Brisbane, the Scotia CF1 project recorded an initial full field production of over 40 TJ/day.
Santos said that field production was in line with the expectations.
The project is expected to boost gas supply to the Santos Gladstone LNG project (GLNG) project and benefit both the east coast domestic gas and export LNG markets.
Upon reaching peak production in late 2019, the project will be able to supply about 70 TJ/day.
The Scotia CF1 project involved expansion of the Scotia compression plant and field from 23 to more than 100 wells.
It also included construction of 85km of linear infrastructure, two 4G communications towers and an irrigation system for water treatment.
Santos managing director and chief executive officer Kevin Gallagher said: “The project was estimated to cost A$493 million, but the team has delivered it for A$416 million, sixteen per cent under budget.
“Site infrastructure is also running three months ahead of schedule and some of the well completions are a year ahead of time.”
The company employed more than 400 people to complete the project.
Queensland Mines Minister Anthony Lynham welcomed the commissioning of Santos’ $400m Scotia Project in the Bowen basin.
Lynham said:”This is further fixed capital investment in our $70 billion LNG industry, that supports 7000 oil and gas jobs, generates billions in revenue including $9.8 billion in LNG exports over the 12 months to February 2018.”
Santos has also announced the sale of its non-core Denison Trough assets in Queensland to Orient (Denison Trough).
