The Queensland coal seam gas industry has been nothing short of prolific over the past decade, with global demand for liquefied natural gas fuelling the development of this sector. Jemena, together with Zinfra, is currently working to expand the capacity of their Roma North gas processing facility from 16TJ/day to 24TJ/day, helping to meet global demand for this critical resource.
Work on the $15 million expansion of the Roma North Gas Processing Facility in Queensland’s Maranoa Region commenced earlier this year. Jemena, the owner and asset manager of the facility, has been working closely with service delivery partner Zinfra to ensure the expansion is completed by September this year.
The expansion will allow Jemena to deliver increased flows from Senex’s Roma North gas field to market. As a result of this project, the capacity of the Roma North Gas Processing Facility will increase by about 50 per cent. Jemena will then transport gas from the facility on behalf of Senex to their customer Gladstone Liquefied Natural Gas (GLNG).
Currently, the processing facility is capable of delivering 16TJ of gas per day, and this will increase to 24TJ of gas per day at the completion of this project.
Jemena and Zinfra are both part of the SGSPAA Group, and have a well established and trusted partnership. This was reinforced in April this year when Jemena’s gas projects team was integrated into Zinfra. Under the new business model, Jemena’s gas business development team evaluates any new opportunities to expand its portfolio, and then develops the business case in collaboration with Zinfra, who provides advice regarding buildability, methodology, cost and construction timeline. Once the investment proposal receives board approval, the project is handed to Zinfra to carry out the procurement, construction and commissioning, which also includes managing the approvals of engineering deliverables. A smooth handover to operations, also a Zinfra team, is a key part of integrating the asset within the existing fleet.
For the Roma North Expansion, Zinfra is handling the project management, procurement, construction management and commissioning. Being a transition project, Jemena engaged Brisbane-based Wasco to undertake the construction component for the expansion, with Zinfra managing the full implementation of this component to completion.
According to Zinfra Project Manager Justin Anderson, Wasco were engaged after winning a competitive tender for the works, based upon their past experience – they built the original Roma North compressor station for Senex – as well as their local presence, capability, price, schedule and adherence to commercial terms.
Peter Iancov, Managing Director of Zinfra, said that gaining the capability to deliver major gas transmission projects is completing the full suite of capability that Zinfra can offer to the market. Now, Zinfra has full capability to deliver services and projects, in both transmission and distribution for gas and electricity markets.
According to Mr Iancov, this project is a particularly good example of Zinfra working with an upstream gas owner/operator (Senex) and a midstream infrastructure owner/operator (Jemena) to develop Queensland’s gas reserves.
“Senex relies on Jemena as its trusted midstream infrastructure partner to process its gas and deliver it to the market; and Jemena relies on Zinfra, as its trusted project delivery partner, to turn a conceptual scope of work into a fully constructed and commissioned asset that is holistically integrated into the Jemena business,” said Mr Iancov.
“Zinfra has the expertise in project management, procurement, construction management, commissioning, integration and handover, and operations and maintenance to ensure that the concept that our upstream and midstream partners envisaged becomes a reality.
“We have highly skilled and experienced people and very well developed systems and processes that give Jemena and our upstream partners confidence that we are going to deliver the project safely, to a high standard, and on schedule, every time.
“We take a long-term perspective to our relationships and contracts, and really seek to build and maintain genuine partnerships, so it’s really pleasing to see that approach paying off on projects such as this one.”
Zinfra has a focus on continuous improvement, and Mr Iancov says that the team has incorporated many lessons learned in both project delivery and operation and maintenance from the original Roma North plant, as well as the Atlas Compressor Station, into the works they are executing as part of the Roma North expansion.
In particular, improvements in functionality have been achieved, which will allow the compressors in Queensland to be remotely operated in Zinfra’s control room in Melbourne. Additionally, improvements in compressor skid reassembly methods are enabling the acceleration of construction time on site.
Currently Zinfra has a mix of project, engineering and construction management personnel working on the project. In addition, there are many more people within Jemena and Zinfra working on the integration of the new assets into the business, including asset management engineers, operations and maintenance personnel, control room operators, commercial managers and health and safety experts.
Across the team members working on this project, combined there are hundreds of years of experience in designing and constructing complex oil and gas processing equipment. This includes mechanical and electrical project engineers who are focused on rotating equipment, and managing the design and procurement of the two new compressor packages to be installed at Roma North.
Work on the expansion commenced in mid-2021, when design was completed and long-lead items were ordered. Construction is now halfway to completion, and gas will be exported from the new compressors in September 2021.
