Longford Quarterly Update - October 2024

On 28th April 1969, the Hon. Sir Arthur Rylah, the acting premier of Victoria officially opened the Esso Australia operated Longford Gas Plant 1 and the Crude Stabilisation Plant, kicking off the first production from the Gippsland basin. Gas Plant 1 later expanded with the addition of Gas Plant 2 in 1976, Gas Plant 3 in 1983, and more recently the Gas Conditioning Plant in 2017 to remove CO₂. The Gippsland Basin Joint Venture (Esso Australia and Woodside) has now produced more than half of Australia’s crude oil and at their peak provided over 10 percent of all Australian government revenue.

Recently we have shut in production of our last crude only producing platform, Cobia, marking the end of oil production and the beginning of a new era as we transition to a modern gas business. We will still remain the largest single source of gas supply to the east coast domestic market and will continue to supply gas that Victoria can depend on. Last month, supporting these endeavours, we started up additional compression facilities to increase the capacity of one of the offshore gas fields, Kipper.  This project alone will produce more gas than Victoria consumes in a year and represents another significant investment in continued gas supply from the Gippsland Basin.

In the coming weeks, the last drop of oil from the offshore pipeline network will make its way through the Crude Stabilisation Plant, where it will be retired after 55 years of service. Soon after, the heavily integrated Gas Plant 1 will follow. Although crude production has ceased, Longford will continue to produce and ship condensate which is a lighter crude product from gas wells. The Longford team have been busy preparing for this transition with the addition of a new facility to remove water from the condensate. This project has been a herculean effort with over 140,000-human hours, a peak workforce of 85 team members installing approximately five kilometres of piping (mostly fabricated locally) and 18 kilometres of cables. I would like to personally thank all those involved for safely executing the construction and startup of this project - a great achievement!

A big congratulations to two of our Esso apprentices, Brendan Anthonisen and James Binotto, who both clinched second place in their categories of Machining and Fitting respectively at the Regional World Skills Australia Competition. This certainly highlights their hard work paying off and is a testament to the quality of our award-winning apprenticeship program. Both Brendan and James now have the chance to be invited to compete in the national championships. Good luck! 

This year we are proudly co-sponsoring the Sale Show Night Carnival on Friday 1 November and their Monster Trucks event. It should be a good weekend of fun and entertainment and I look forward to seeing you there!

As always, if you have any questions, please reach out to me via consultation@exxonmobil.com.