Santos Advances 175-Well Roma Phase 8B Stage 2 as 2029 Gas Build Enters Federal Review

Roma Phase 8B Stage 2 has entered the Commonwealth referral process

The EPBC Public Portal records Roma Phase 8B Stage 2 as referral 2026/10646, started on 8 September 2026 and currently at “Referral Decision — Open for Public Comment”. The immediate Commonwealth question is whether the proposed action is a controlled action requiring further assessment under the EPBC Act.

Santos Ventures Pty Ltd is the designated proponent and operator of ATP 2052. The referral describes progressive construction, operation, decommissioning and rehabilitation of up to 175 CSG production wells. That is a materially defined field-development proposal rather than a generic exploration program.

The proposal also builds on work already completed in the area. Santos says eight CSG appraisal wells and associated infrastructure were drilled and completed within ATP 2052 between 2022 and 2025, and the company intends those wells to form part of the proposed development.

The development combines well pads, gathering systems, roads and temporary support infrastructure

Published project scope

A distributed field-development program across ATP 2052 east of Roma

The project area covers about 8,894 hectares in the Maranoa Regional Council area, approximately 68 kilometres east of Roma and 10 kilometres east of Yuleba. The referral says the preliminary disturbance footprint has been refined to about 609.5 hectares after environmental surveys and impact-avoidance work.

Individual well leases are expected to be about 1.25 hectares for a single well and up to about 3 hectares for multi-well leases. Water and gas gathering lines, trunklines and pipelines would generally use construction corridors about 20–35 metres wide, while roads and access tracks would typically use corridors about 10–15 metres wide.

Supporting works may include temporary water tanks, temporary camps, power and communications lines and other field infrastructure. The published concept therefore creates a broad delivery chain spanning drilling, civil, piping, electrical, communications, logistics and environmental capability if the project proceeds.

The referral does not propose a new major gas-compression or water-treatment facility inside the project area. Gas and produced water would instead be transferred through new and existing gathering infrastructure to existing approved facilities on adjacent Santos tenures, including connection toward the Roma field system.

Santos estimates about 246 megalitres of water could be needed to develop the project, with produced water preferred where practicable. The referral separately estimates about 2,790 megalitres of produced water over the development life, reinforcing that water management remains an important operational and environmental interface.

The federal decision is the next visible gate before any broader assessment pathway

Approval pathway

Referral now; assessment requirements and final project approvals remain ahead

The current EPBC stage is a referral decision, not an approval decision. The Commonwealth is considering whether the proposed action is likely to have a significant impact on protected matters and therefore requires assessment as a controlled action.

If a controlled-action decision is made, a further assessment pathway would be set before any final Commonwealth approval decision. Separate Queensland petroleum, environmental and land-access requirements also continue to apply to development activities.

The referral notes that field investigations and design work have already been used to avoid and minimise environmental impacts. That process is likely to continue as well locations, access, gathering routes and construction footprints are refined.

If approved, delivery would be a rolling field-development program rather than one single construction package

The practical delivery model for a distributed CSG development is different from a single plant build. Wells can be developed progressively while supporting roads, gathering systems, power and communications are extended across the field. The referral anticipates a multi-year program from 2029, consistent with staged development rather than one short construction campaign.

For industry, the physical scope points to capability areas including drilling and completions support, well-pad civil works, road and access construction, trenching and gathering installation, trunkline and pipeline works, temporary water storage and management, camp and logistics support, electrical and communications services, environmental fieldwork, rehabilitation and ongoing operations support.

Those are capability areas inferred from the published physical scope. BBI has not identified public evidence that Santos has released these as discrete tenders or awarded packages for Roma Phase 8B Stage 2.

The project sits inside an active Roma–GLNG upstream system with strong recent production

Commercial and strategic context

Existing infrastructure lowers the need for a standalone processing build inside ATP 2052

Santos operates the upstream side of GLNG, which links Queensland gas fields to a 420-kilometre transmission pipeline and the two-train LNG facility on Curtis Island. The company’s stated upstream strategy includes building gas supply around existing infrastructure and extracting more value from established systems.

That context is relevant to ATP 2052. The referral says Roma Phase 8B Stage 2 would connect into existing approved GLNG and gas-field infrastructure rather than construct a new large compression or treatment complex inside the project area.

Santos reported that the Roma field achieved record daily production of about 230 TJ/day gross in the second quarter of 2026, while GLNG upstream production averaged about 703 TJ/day gross. The new referral therefore sits alongside an operating gas system that is already materially active.

The commercial opportunity for regional contractors is consequently likely to be field-development and sustaining-capital oriented: distributed civil works, drilling support, gathering networks, electrical and communications extensions, logistics, environmental services and rehabilitation. The timing and packaging of any such work remain unconfirmed.

BBI is also tracking related Queensland gas and energy developments including the Surat Gas Project Central and the Central Queensland gas power tender.

What contractors and suppliers should watch next

The referral is important because it turns ATP 2052 into a defined project watchlist item with scale, location, physical scope and an indicative development window. It is still too early to treat the proposal as a live procurement program.