Diversified energy company Senex has pledged $300,000 to the Royal Flying Doctor Service (RFDS) Central Operations over the next three years.
The agreement is not limited to a cash contribution, both Senex and the RFDS have committed to fostering a safety culture within the oil and gas operations and surrounding outback and pastoral communities.
The partnership will apply to the RFDS’ Central Operations area of South and Central Australia, which includes covering Senex’s rapidly growing oil operations on the western flank of the Cooper Basin.
Speaking at a ceremony in Innamincka on 8 November, Senex Managing Director, Ian Davies, said the company was enormously proud to be partnering with the RFDS.
“Our partnership with the RFDS is simply the right thing to do,” he said. “Senex – and the oil and gas industry as a whole – must ensure the health and safety of everyone who lives and works in the growing oil and gas provinces of Australia’s outback. We believe that working with the RFDS is the best way to do that."
In recognition of the Company’s significant support, the RFDS has badged the fuselage of one of its flying intensive care units, VH-FDE, with the Senex logo.
VH-FDE is one of 11 medically-equipped Pilatus PC-12s owned and operated by RFDS Central Operations across its Adelaide, Port Augusta and Alice Springs bases. It is one of 63 RFDS aircraft located across Australia.
Over the past year, that aircraft alone has transported 582 patients from 70 regional and rural townships throughout South and Central Australia, including numerous evacuations from the Cooper-Eromanga Basin, as well as regular ‘fly-in’ GP health clinics throughout the state’s far north.