Santos' Cooper Basin Gas Output to Rise

Following a ten year decline, Santos' gas production capacity in the Cooper Basin in central Australia has risen for the past three years and is poised to surge by 30 per cent over the next two years, Sydney Morning Herald said.

Santos said capacity at its operations in the Cooper Basin had risen for the past three years after bottoming at about 400 million cubic feet a day. Gas production capacity is now expected to rise 30 per cent to about 550 million cubic feet a day by 2015, it told a conference in Brisbane on Tuesday, SMH reported.

The move comes as Santos and its partners prepare to access a greater portion of unconventional gas, which in the Cooper will be sourced from shale.

It is also moving to more than double the number of wells drilled annually in the Cooper from the present level of about 25 wells, it said.