Santos desert teams take on threats of heat, rough surface and dangerous snakes

Working at Santos’ Moomba job found in the remote Strzelecki Desert around 800 kilometres north of the South Australia state capital Adelaide brings its own benefits — and some uncommon difficulties.

Alongside additional benefit such as sensational sundowns, there are intense summertime temperature levels, uncompromising surface and close encounters with the native wildlife, a few of which ought to absolutely be approached with care.

Kangaroos, lizards and cockatoos are not irregular visitors to the job website, and employees sitting outside their onsite lodgings, referred to as ‘cribs’, have actually reported seeing dingoes at close quarters in the early night, Brett Woods, president of Santos Energy Solutions, informs Upstream.

However, it is poisonous snakes such as the eastern brown snake that might trigger the most damage to the business’s staff members and specialists at Moomba — eastern browns are accountable for most of snakebite deaths in Australia, supposedly representing as much as 65% of such deaths in between 2000 and 2016.

Santos uses an animals specialist throughout building work and when pipelines are being laid, both to guarantee the safety of wildlife types and their environment that possibly might be affected, along with the safety of employees at the Moomba center.

But poisonous snakes take no notification of dates and times, and the operator likewise has its own snake wranglers — staff members who, possibly remarkably, did not draw the brief straw however in fact offered to be trained for the function.

“We have more applications [to be trained as snake wranglers] than there are positions,” says Woods.

Those on the ground likewise require to be trained in how to handle the severe weather that Moomba experiences throughout the southern hemisphere summer season of October through March, when peak temperature levels can well go beyond 40 degrees Celsius.

Other specialised training is needed for all staff members who drive cars at the Moomba property — 4×4 training is required since of the surface.

Some 60 employees generally reside on website at Moomba throughout regular operations, working 2 12-hour shifts — respectively beginning at 6am and 6pm — on common fly-in, fly-out lineups of 2 weeks on and 2 weeks off.

During the building stage for the Moomba carbon capture and storage job, nevertheless, that number has actually increased to around 600.

Such is the remoteness, not to discuss security and safety issues, that there are no scheduled flights to Moomba and access to the center is limited to Santos staff members, its specialists and welcomed visitors.