Santos, one of the largest oil and gas producers in Australia and the largest oil and gas producer and exporter of Papua New Guinea (PNG), has selected Hiber’s HiberHilo satellite-powered remote well-monitoring solution to ensure the safety and environmental security of numerous oil and gas wells in PNG.
“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. Oil producers that implement HiberHilo are seeing a 10x return on their investment in terms of cost savings.”
Santos’s vast production portfolio includes some of the remotest operations in the world. The interior of PNG is mountainous, heavily forested, and sparsely populated. There is 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 a logistical challenge, requiring off-road trucks to drive several hours through the rainforest. With an annual budget of around $2 million for well monitoring that yielded sporadic and insufficient well data, Santos was eager to reduce costs, better manage risk, and boost overall operational efficiency.
Santos had previously experimented with various digital well-monitoring solutions; all of these had turned out to be too expensive, too complex, or simply didn’t work. HiberHilo proved to be a viable solution: affordable and easy to install, and capable of operating in even the remotest locations.
The deal signed with Hiber enables Santos to install HiberHilo on 70 wells initially, with the possibility to add more wells in the future. This industry-proven solution uses low-cost, low-power satellite connectivity to gather performance and safety data from wells in remote, off-grid locations.
HiberHilo advances Santos sustainability goals by helping the company monitor remote wells more closely — above and beyond what is required by PNG regulations. HiberHilo helps Santos prevent incidents by catching issues such as a leak or pressure build-up at an early stage so interventions can be planned to mitigate pollution or costly production downtime. In addition, HiberHilo helps Santos reduce its carbon footprint and improve its crew safety by reducing helicopter and truck trips to wells.
HiberHilo is a comprehensive IoT-as-a-service solution for the oil and gas industry developed by Hiber in a joint venture with WTS Energy. It gathers data from sensors on wells and relays it in real time to a secure online dashboard via Inmarsat’s global satellite network for IoT.