Session 25. Oral Presentation for: QGC Upstream – operational efficiency improvement

Presented on 21 May 2026: Session 25 QGC Upstream has achieved its best-ever wells performance, with a record well availability of over 97% across 3000+ online wells. Unplanned deferment rates have decreased by more than 70% compared to 2023, and pumping wells have reached a record mean time to failure of 1790 days. Operations and maintenance costs have been reduced by over 35% per well, enabling QGC to deliver additional wells under its backfill program while continuing to lower Unit Operating Costs. Secondary benefits include 200,000+ km of driving annual reduction, reduced oil consumption by over 35,000 L per year, reduced grease consumption by 1125 kg per year, reduced fuel gas consumption by over 1000 TJ/year, and 50 kT of CO2 emissions. These results were driven by several key initiatives: (1) A dedicated Maintenance Optimisation Squad focused on enhancing performance and reducing structural costs using advance analytics and predictive maintenance techniques. (2) Targeted defects elimination and automation projects that accelerate remote recovery from trip events, reducing deferment, workforce demand, and allowing faster response to operational upsets. (3) Streamlined permitting processes for low and medium risk work, cutting the number of permitted tasks by over 80%. (4) A cross-skilling program across operations and maintenance teams, improving responsiveness, productivity, and reducing mean time to repair. This integrated approach has empowered QGC to confidently progress into the next tranche of backfill wells – delivering more with less – while maintaining record levels of safety, reliability, structural cost reduction, and operational excellence to meet the needs of our customers across domestic and international markets. To access the Oral Presentation click ‘Supplementary data’ below. To read the full paper click here