Transforming into a Modern Gas Business

Longford Plants Manager Clinton Gentle

With 2023 well underway, we are continuing to drive transformation in our industry and lead the energy transition by safely, reliably and responsibly producing gas that Victoria can depend on.

I am proud to see how well my teams have been working together to deliver the best outcomes for both our business and the Gippsland community.

In preparation for peak winter gas demand, the team recently completed an overhaul of Gas Plant 3 (GP3) successfully. They executed tasks safely from start to finish and completed over 27,000 work hours with zero incidents – a great achievement! It’s been wonderful to witness a ‘Thanks Mate’ culture; a culture at Esso Australia where team members are willing to have and accept safety conversations in a positive manner, and I am pleased that these interactions have helped mitigate risks for potential incidents. 

We also recently tied in the shutdown with the wrap up of our Safety Incentive Program, where team members who demonstrated excellent pro-active safety behaviours were given the chance to nominate their charity organisation of choice and Esso alongside Wood, UGL, GNG and Oceaneering donated money towards these charities. Over $20,000 was raised for Monday Tucker, Wellington Toy Library and Sale Neighbourhood House. It’s great to see the team’s pride and passion for safety pay it forward to these amazing local charities.

On the topic of GP3, it recently turned 40 – what a significant milestone! Since 1983, GP3 has safely produced over 4,000 petajoules of gas for Australia, an equivalent of supplying gas to Victoria alone for 16 years. Happy birthday GP3!

While our base business continues to remain strong, we are looking at ways to decarbonise and lead the energy transition. Last year we signed two long-term CO2 supply agreements with Air Liquide and BOC. We have reconfigured our plant to be able to capture and convert CO2 into an essential product for the Australian food and beverage industry as well as many essential services in hospitality, manufacturing and medical industries. This means in the near future, the fizz in your beer or soft drinks could likely have been sourced from our Longford facility. 

In other exciting news, Esso Australia’s carbon capture and storage hub is continuing to move with full speed ahead, with the project recently progressing to its next stage. Five new compressors will be installed to pressure CO2 from the Longford Gas Plants, which will then be sent to the Bream A offshore platform. The project has the potential to capture up to 2 million metric tons of CO2 - that’s equivalent to taking almost half a million cars off the road for every year of operation. 

While we navigate our way through Australia’s energy transition, it is important that we also continue to develop our people as the need for knowledge and competencies rise in our industry. 
With that said, I’d like to welcome our five new apprentices from our local community who have recently joined our team. They will be completing mechanical, instrumentation and electrical apprenticeships over a 4 to 5-year period. 

It’s great to see such young talent already contributing to providing gas that Victoria can depend on, and I am excited to have them join us and develop their talents.

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