Santos has announced a major expansion of its digital oilfield initiative, agreeing to deploy Xecta’s Integrated Production System Model (IPSM) across its assets in Eastern Australia and Papua New Guinea (PNG).
The new five-year agreement builds on the measurable production successes achieved with the initial IPSM deployment in the Cooper Basin.
The initiative’s first phase in the Cooper Basin covered over 1,000 wells and 10 satellite facilities, delivering a significant uplift in production under some of Australia’s most challenging operating conditions.
The IPSM enabled Santos to modernise surveillance and optimisation workflows, resulting in significant reductions in engineering effort and time.
The expanded programme will now also include Santos’ Coal Seam Gas operations and PNG assets.
Developed by Xecta, the IPSM is described as an industry-first solution capable of analysing billions of telemetry data points and fully automating engineering workflows.
The advanced platform provides a comprehensive, real-time view of production systems, delivering optimisation insights far beyond what traditional tools and manual approaches offer.
The key advantages of IPSM includes:
- Continuous, automated analysis of field performance
- Real-time, system-wide optimisation — from the reservoir to facility inlet
- Significant reductions in manual engineering workflows
- Enhanced ability to surface optimisation opportunities across complex fields
Xecta CEO Sanjay Paranji emphasised the transformative nature of the solution, stating: “IPSM represents a fundamental shift in how production systems are understood and optimised.
“By combining domain physics with AI, IPSM enables a continuously calibrated view of field performance at scale — automating surveillance, surfacing optimisation opportunities, and dramatically reducing manual effort in even the most complex environments.”
Alongside its technological advancements, Santos has also secured a mid-term contract with QatarEnergy Trading to supply around 500,000 tonnes per annum of LNG for two years, starting in 2026.
This agreement will utilise Santos’ extensive portfolio, with LNG delivered on an ex-ship basis.
This strategic expansion highlights how innovative digital solutions are transforming production optimisation in the oil and gas sector, driving efficiency gains and positioning Santos to maximise performance across diverse operating environments.
