Australian oil and gas producer Santos has decided to use Hiber’s HiberHilo satellite-powered platform to monitor some of its most remote oil and gas wells.
“We are delighted that Santos has selected HiberHilo to improve the sustainability and safety of their well monitoring activities,” said Hiber CEO Roel Jansen. “Our ability to offer this solution anywhere in the world at low cost and minimal installation complexity makes it economically feasible for operators to connect their most remote wells and gain valuable insights, 24/7.”
Santos’s production portfolio includes some of the most remote operations in the world. The interior of Papua New Guinea is mountainous, heavily forested, and sparsely populated. The region has virtually no infrastructure, few roads, and extremely limited communications and power infrastructure.
Until now, Santos monitored remote wells manually, which meant flying in teams by helicopter to take measurements at least once a month. Even the more accessible wells were logistically challenging, requiring off-road trucks to drive several hours through the rainforest. With an annual budget of approximately $2 million for well monitoring that yielded sporadic and insufficient well data, Santos said it was eager to reduce costs, better manage risk, and boost overall operational efficiency.
Santos said it previously experimented with various digital well-monitoring solutions, all of which turned out to be too expensive and too complex or simply didn’t work.
The deal signed with Hiber enables Santos initially to install HiberHilo on 70 wells, with the possibility to add more. Hiber’s platform uses low-power satellite connectivity to gather performance and safety data from wells in remote, off-grid locations.
Santos said that the HiberHilo platform will advance its sustainability goals by helping the company monitor remote wells more closely—above and beyond what is required by regulations. Santos said it expects HiberHilo to help prevent incidents by catching issues such as a leak or pressure build-ups early so interventions can be planned. In addition, Santos said HiberHilo will help it reduce its carbon footprint and improve crew safety by reducing helicopter and truck trips to wells.
HiberHilo was developed by Hiber in a joint venture with WTS Energy. The satellite-based platform gathers data from sensors on wells and relays it in real time to a secure online dashboard through Inmarsat’s global satellite network for the Internet of Things.