ExxonMobil Australia has announced the completion and launch of their new multi-billion-dollar gas plant in Victoria. The $5.5 billion Kipper Tuna Turrum gas fields and conditioning plant marks a new phase of gas production in Australia, and is expected to add to the country’s energy security.
The Longford Gas Conditioning Plant will process 1.6 trillion cubic feet of natural gas for eastern Australia; a quantity that has the potential to power a city of a million people for 35 years.
ExxonMobil Australia chair, Richard Owen, says the new plant will allow access to vast new reserves, enabling the company to develop some of their more complex fields with increased geological and chemical complexity.
The ExxonMobil Longford facility already has three plants that supply 75 per cent of Victoria's gas. The new plant will feature conditioning treatments to remove CO2 and mercury from gas before it is distributed to the market.
Welcoming the investment by ExxonMobil and its joint venture partners, federal resources minister Matthew Canavan said the Kipper Tuna Turrum project was an incredibly important addition to their energy security, given the context of gas shortages emerging in the country.
Canavan added that the long-term solution lay in making similar investments to bring more gas online for domestic purposes, including in onshore areas of Victoria.
