PERTH (miningweekly.com) – The Australia Pacific liquefied natural gas (APLNG) project has achieved another milestone, as loading of refrigerants to its Curtis Island facility got under way.
Project operator Origin Energy noted that this was a significant achievement in the commissioning and start-up phase of the project.
The refrigerants propane and ethylene would continue to arrive on Curtis Island over the coming weeks.
“The arrival of the refrigerants signifies a key step towards starting up the first LNG train. It enables us to meet the next milestones, including test runs of the compressors, followed by final commissioning of the remaining units of the first LNG train,” said APLNG CEO Page Maxson.
The $24.7-billion APLNG project would comprise two processing trains each with a 4.5-million-tonne-a-year nameplate production capacity. LNG from the first train was expected by mid-2015.
First LNG exports were scheduled to start in the second half of the calendar year.