Business leaders gather in Roma for TSBE enterprise evening

Taking the 100 or so business leaders present at the Roma event through the company's evolution, Mr Watt said the Santos of today was a lot different to the one "that was first out here kicking off the GLNG project 10-15 years ago".

"You have to work hard for (liquid natural gas)," he said.

"It's a bit of a margin games sometimes and you have to be in it for longer, as opposed to a lot of projects where you might drill a well and then produce that well for 15-20 years.

"We need a real lot of wells and we need to do it really well, and we need to be very good at what we do in order to make a project work.

"It took a lot of learning and along the way we transferred a lot of that learning to other parts of our business, and that included stuff that we were doing with Cooper Basin.

"It also gave us confidence to continue to try and grow, which we did."

The Santos GLNG project has completed over 2000 wells and the company's 500^th cargo of LNG recently departed from Curtis Island, which Mr Watt said was one of the things he was most proud of.

"I remember the picture that came out with the first cargo and it all seemed quite foreign at that time - that we'd managed to get everything to come together and get all this gas, get all the compression working, get it up to Curtis Island, and then be able to go through the liquefaction process, and then be able to load the ship so that it was able to help other areas that didn't have the ability to get safe reliable energy," he said. "I look forward to seeing another 500 cargoes and continuing to grow as we expand on that project."

Santos operates in four main fields around Roma, including the Roma field to the east of the town, described as one of its biggest fields and one of its most important in terms of future development.

"We're just about to kick off another series of projects in that field where we continue to try and develop the acreage that supports the production hub in that area," Mr Watt said.

He said the Scotia field to the north and east towards Wandoan and Taroom was a little bit smaller than some of the others but was one it looked forward to continuing to work in.

Mr Watt said the Fairview field east of Injune was probably one of the best coal seam gas fields in the world, in terms of "produceability and reliability", and was the anchor for the GLNG project.

As well as many years of continued development expected there, Santos is expanding its newest field in the Arcadia Valley, which Mr Watt said had become a very reliable production field for them.

He touched briefly on the carbon capture and sequestration project in the Cooper Basin.

In what was music to the ears of business owners and community leaders, Mr Watt said there were multiple supply chain opportunities as a result of the ongoing development.

"There are opportunities that are directly contracted with Santos, and there are also lots of opportunities with valued service companies and suppliers that we have worked with for many years," he said. "If you have something that you think might be of interest or is something that could be beneficial to the community or to a project, it's important to reach out."

He noted that since 2016, Santos had spent more than $600 million directly in the Maranoa region, COVID notwithstanding.

He also gave the audience advice on submitting tenders so people can best position their business.

"Consider things like business goals, capabilities, capacity, visibility, and identifying gaps and seeking support if required," he said.

Maranoa Regional Council Mayor Tyson Golder thanked resource companies for what they did for the region, saying his council was supporting infrastructure by ensuring that it was one of the lowest-cost places to start a business.

"I personally believe this is the brightest we've seen it for a long time," he said.

Prior to the enterprise evening, in honour of Indigenous Business Month, TSBE facilitated a Q&A session focused on supporting indigenous businesses working with major projects.

The session featured representatives from Easternwell, ARTC/Inland Rail and Origin Energy, who discussed their experiences and ongoing ideas to continue outcomes.

TSBE CEO Ali Davenport said the evening had been an ideal opportunity to highlight all the ongoing activity across the Maranoa.

"The region has a gross regional product of more than $2 billion and it's increasing every year, demonstrating just how important these major projects are," she said. "It was also important to acknowledge the opening of Valmec's new Roma facility and hear about how the company is growing their footprint in the region."

Warrego MP Ann Leahy opened the Valmec facility, which included an indigenous smoking ceremony.

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