Photo credit: Santos - Brett Darley
PNG will continue to be a major focus of strategy as Santos works to decarbonize operations, according to the upstream chief of Santos.
Santos president of Upstream Oil and Gas, Brett Darley, stated that Santos is still eager to keep that region as its primary investment priority.
“More broadly as a company, Santos is developing our three-hub carbon capture and storage (CCS) strategy.
As we seek to decarbonise our economy, carbon capture and storage will be critical in achieving that goal,” Mr Darley said.
“Australia needs to get behind CCS, because we know net zero cannot be achieved without it. If Australia and the world is serious about net zero, then we must be serious about decarbonising existing energy sources as the market evolves over time for new clean fuels, such as hydrogen,” Mr Darley said.
He said that there are countless chances in PNG, both professionally and socially.
“People might be surprised to know that around 80 per cent of global primary energy today still comes from hydrocarbons – the same as 45 years ago.
However, with less than 15 per cent of the population in Papua New Guinea having access to electricity, and those with access facing the challenges of temperamental supply, we must bring on new supply and continue to develop our product safely and sustainably, for years to come,” Mr Darley said.
“We know global supply will be tight for years to come due to OECD supply constraints, government policy, and activism.
Gas must become the baseload, alongside renewables in developed countries, otherwise the transition will be very messy.
For this reason, the next 30 years calls for a structural shift in the way that the world generates energy. As an industry, we need to maintain supply while we innovate to transition to net zero emissions.”
According to him, Santos's new plan is to backfill existing infrastructure and then maintain production across all of its assets until the mid-2040s and beyond. It also focuses on decarbonization and clean fuels.
“While we backfill and sustain our core assets to deliver the critical fuels the world needs, we will also decarbonise these critical fuels and produce clean fuels as customer demand evolves,” Mr Darley said.
“Santos is in a very strong position to be a leader in all three of these areas over the course of this decade and beyond.
As a core region for Santos, our Papua New Guinean assets will be key in this strategy, and we are keen to maintain our investment focus there.”
Reference: Post-Courier (7 December 2022). “Santos Looks At Decarbonisation”.
