Emerson chosen as an alliance participant for $42 million automation project by Australia's largest on-shore natural gas producer

Emerson's PlantWeb^® technology and engineering will reduce plant operating costs, improve performance for Santos

Santos Ltd., Australia's largest on-shore natural gas producer, has selected Emerson Process Management, a business of Emerson (NYSE:EMR), for a multi-million-dollar Asset Control Enhancement (ACE) project to upgrade the automation system at the Moomba oil and gas processing plant.

Emerson will install its PlantWeb digital plant architecture to improve performance and reduce operating costs for the gas processing plant, which is operated by Santos Ltd. on behalf of its joint venture partners. Moomba is located 500 miles north of Adelaide, South Australia.

The upgrade is part of an Asset Control Enhancement project valued at approximately $42 million, including an estimated $10 million contract with Emerson. It is designed to improve plant reliability and availability, and reduce operating costs at the plant, which produces approximately 40 percent of Australia's domestic natural gas requirements. Industrial, commercial, and residential customers in South Australia, Victoria, New South Wales, Queensland, and the Australian Capital Territory all benefit from this gas. Ethane and hydrocarbon liquids also are produced from the Moomba plant.

Natural gas is continually growing in importance in the Australian economy as more than 3.2 million households and 115,000 manufacturing plants and commercial businesses use natural gas for heating and cooling, and as fuel for passenger and commercial vehicles. Australia also exports its liquefied natural gas to Japan and other Asian markets.

"We have a strategy aimed at optimizing the existing Moomba infrastructure to maximize the financial returns over the remaining life of this key asset. Upgrading of the Moomba Plant control systems are a major part of this improvement strategy," said Keith Walker, project director, Santos. "Emerson's PlantWeb automation solution is a key aspect of the upgrade that will bring significant improvements to our business in 2004."

A team of engineers (selected from the alliance of Santos, Emerson Process Management, and Aker Kvaerner E&C) will begin by performing a complete audit of the Moomba plant. The results will guide Emerson as it designs and implements complete replacement of the existing distributed control systems, programmable logic controls, emergency shutdown systems, and pneumatic instrumentation.

Emerson's PlantWeb digital plant architecture automates the flow of information to all users who run the plant, enabling needed improvements in reliability, availability, and efficiency. Emerson also will provide all engineering and configuration services.

"The Moomba gas processing plant is a strategic asset for Santos, and improvements in its automation systems will help Santos achieve its goal of reducing operational costs," said John Berra, president of Emerson Process Management. "The combination of proven, innovative PlantWeb digital architecture and our easy-to-use DeltaV™ automation system will provide the blueprint for and deliver information needed to optimize plant performance and reliability."

The asset control enhancement project will incorporate FOUNDATION fieldbus and HART communications technology as part of the PlantWeb architecture. PlantWeb's DeltaV digital automation system and AMS™ Suite predictive maintenance software work with the field devices to provide easy user interface for engineering, commissioning, operation, and maintenance.

The FOUNDATION fieldbus certified instrumentation for the project includes Rosemount^® pressure and temperature transmitters, magnetic flowmeters, and vortex flowmeters; Rosemount Analytical analyzers; Micro Motion^® Coriolis flowmeters; and Fisher^®valves with Fisher FIELDVUE^® digital valve controllers. The DeltaV system and AMS Suite predictive maintenance software integrate the PlantWeb architecture into the overall enterprise management systems of Santos.

The PlantWeb automation solution includes a 20,000-input/output DeltaV system with 45 work station screens, 40 redundant controllers, plant and wellhead historian, plus remote user access. DeltaV OPC (OLE for Process Control) integrates HIMA emergency shutdown and other process control and monitoring systems in a common operator interface for the entire system.

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