Within the next 24 hours the company is expected to have supply back to around 150 terajoules per day (tj/d), still well short of the 400tj/d required during the busy summer months for Sydney and Adelaide.
Santos' managing director, John Ellice-Flint, said the assessment process would continue over the next seven to 10 days.
"We will then be in a position to more accurately forecast the number of weeks required for the interim production process to further increase gas supplies to around 400 TJ/d while the Moomba plant is repaired," he said.
Ellice-Flint said initial investigation of the incident pointed towards an unforseen failure of a heat exchanger inlet nozzle as the source of the gas release.
"A detailed technical investigation is still in progress and the results will not be known for some time," he said.
The newly commissioned 200tj/d SEAGas pipeline linking underground gas storages in western Victoria to Adelaide and the ability of Duke Energy's three-year-old Eastern Gas pipeline, more than doubling Bass Strait gasfield delivery to Sydney has somewhat eased the stress on consumers.
Without those pipelines, both domestic and industrial consumers in SA and NSW would have suffered the loss of supply experienced five years ago in Victoria after the disastrous explosion at the Longford gas plant.
The main distributor of gas in NSW, AGL, has cut supplies to its three biggest consumers and warned that its other big customers could be affected.
On the financial side Santos shares have tumbled on the Australian Stock Exchange (ASX) after the company said the New Year's Day explosion and fire on will result in a production loss estimated at $2.1 million "barrels-of-oil-equivalent" over the next 45-days.
The financial impact of the shut down is estimated to have lopped $35 million - $40 million from Santos' operating cash flows, with an estimated $25 million - $30 million drop in its net profit. As of this morning Santos shares were also down 28 cents, or almost 4% at $6.41.
After a 45-day waiting period, Santos will be able to claim on its "business interruption" insurance.
