Moomba is a restricted access

company town A company town is a place where all or most of the stores and housing in the town are owned by the same company that is also the main employer. Company towns are often planned with a suite of amenities such as stores, houses of worship, schoo ...

located in the Australian state of

South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a States and territories of Australia, state in the southern central part of Australia. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories by area, which in ...

within the gazetted locality of Gidgealpa about north of the state capital of

Adelaide Adelaide ( , ; ) is the list of Australian capital cities, capital and most populous city of South Australia, as well as the list of cities in Australia by population, fifth-most populous city in Australia. The name "Adelaide" may refer to ei ...

. It is operated by

Santos Limited Santos Ltd. (South Australia and Northern Territory Oil Search) is an Australian oil and gas exploration and production company, with its headquarters in Adelaide, South Australia. It owns liquefied natural gas (LNG), pipeline gas, and oil asse ...

for the purpose of exploration and processing of

natural gas Natural gas (also fossil gas, methane gas, and gas) is a naturally occurring compound of gaseous hydrocarbons, primarily methane (95%), small amounts of higher alkanes, and traces of carbon dioxide and nitrogen, hydrogen sulfide and helium ...

found in and recovered from the Cooper and Eromanga Basins. There are a number of partners and contractors on the site including Bureau Veritas, O&G Solutions, SGS, Gearhart, Broadspectrum, OneSteel, Origin Energy, Diversified Construction,

Halliburton Halliburton Company is an American multinational corporation and the world's second-largest oil service company which is responsible for most of the world's fracking operations. It employs approximately 55,000 people through its hundreds of su ...

Baker Hughes Baker Hughes Company is an American global energy technology company co-headquartered in Houston, Texas and London, UK. As one of the world's largest oil field services, industrial and energy technology companies, it provides products and serv ...

, Schlumberger, ProTechnics a Division of Corelab, GPA Engineering, SAGE Automation and Cactus Wellhead.

Geography

Moomba is situated on the Strzelecki Track which runs through northeastern

and into South West Queensland. The settlement is located on a low-lying plain amongst sand dunes at very little height above sea level. Several hundred kilometres to the southwest lies Lake Eyre which is in fact below sea level.

History

Moomba was established in the 1960s and 70s after discovery of gas and oil. The first commercial gas discovery was made at the Gidgealpa field in 1963. The first Permian oil discovery was made at the Tirrawarra field in 1970. The first Jurassic oil discovery was made at the Strzelecki field in 1978. Gas sales to Adelaide commenced in 1969, and gas sales to Sydney commenced in 1976. Ethane sales to Sydney commenced in 1996 An explosion occurred at the gas plant in January 2004. The explosion made national headlines and caused a costly temporary gas shortage for Santos Ltd.

Population

Santos Ltd employs some 1,201 people who work at Moomba and within the rest of the Cooper Basin (including Ballera in South-West Queensland). All employees work on a fly in-fly out roster basis; there is no permanent resident population in Moomba.

Facilities

Moomba has a sealed airstrip and 'camp' accommodation for its " fly-in, fly-out" residents who are, largely, Santos employees. Scheduled Services are operated by Alliance Airlines, flying passengers daily to and from Adelaide. Members of the public are not able to fly to Moomba; only employees, contractors and authorised visitors are able to visit. The New South Wales motoring body, NRMA warns travellers of the absence of public facilities at Moomba. It states:

Note that the Moomba plant and field operations are closed to the public and there are no facilities, supplies or accommodation available for travellers.

Natural Resources Extraction

Gas

The Moomba Adelaide Pipeline System (commenced in 1969) runs 832 kilometres to deliver natural gas extracted from Moomba to Adelaide. This same pipeline is also used to deliver gas from

Queensland Queensland ( , commonly abbreviated as Qld) is a States and territories of Australia, state in northeastern Australia, and is the second-largest and third-most populous state in Australia. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Austr ...

, an arrangement agreed to in 1991 and the project completed in 1993. A separate 659 kilometre liquids pipeline runs southwest to Port Bonython, South Australia for overseas export. A similar gas pipeline to

Sydney Sydney is the capital city of the States and territories of Australia, state of New South Wales and the List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city in Australia. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Syd ...

was completed in 1976, stretching over 1,299 kilometres to Wilton Sydney, with an

ethane Ethane ( , ) is a naturally occurring Organic compound, organic chemical compound with chemical formula . At standard temperature and pressure, ethane is a colorless, odorless gas. Like many hydrocarbons, ethane is List of purification methods ...

pipeline along the same route to Botany in

completed in 1996.Santos Ltd web page on Moomba
According to the

Australian Bureau of Statistics The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) is an List of Australian Government entities, Australian Government agency that collects and analyses statistics on economic, population, Natural environment, environmental, and social issues to advi ...

At Moomba the incoming raw gas stream initially has water and carbon dioxide removed. Next the liquids recovery plant extracts the valuable condensate, ethane and LPG from the gas stream. The resultant sales gas is then pipelined to the Sydney and Adelaide markets. The separated gas liquids as well as the stabilised crude oil from oil fields are directed into the liquids pipeline leading to the fractionation plant at Port Bonython on Spencer Gulf.

Due to an expected peak in availability of gas from Moomba's gas fields in 2006, in June 2007 gas pipeline owner Epic Energy announced moves to link the Moomba pipeline to gas resources in southwest Queensland.

Oil

Significant oil deposits were discovered in Moomba in 1970 and 1978. These are extracted and supplied via pipelines to sales outlets.

Climate

Moomba experiences a mean maximum temperature of in the hottest month of the year, January, with overnight mean minimum temperatures of . July is the coldest month, in winter, with mean maximum temperature and mean minimum temperature. On 12 January 2013, Moomba reached a record maximum temperature of , which is one of the hottest temperatures recorded in South Australia. Moomba sits just on the edge of a rainfall region that has the lowest average rainfall in Australia (a region encompassing Marree and Lake Eyre).1999 ABS Yearbook of South Australia, page 8
Rainfall is highly erratic, and some years it does not rain at all. However, when it does rain it can be extremely heavy and damaging thunderstorms can occur on a few days each year. Light winter rain can also be experienced, but this is just as infrequent and does not happen every year. The wettest month ever recorded was January 1974, with of rain falling.

References

External links

Santos page about Moomba

SAGE Automation
{{authority control Towns in South Australia Company towns in Australia Far North (South Australia) Places in the unincorporated areas of South Australia