Photo by: Bloomberg
PERTH (miningweekly.com) – The $20.4-billion Queensland Curtis liquefied natural gas (QCLNG) project was officially launched on Friday, after starting first production in December last year.
Since first production, 16 LNG cargoes had been shipped from QCLNG as commissioning and performance testing of the plant was undertaken.
Train 1 at the QCLNG project was expected to reach plateau output of around four-million tonnes a year in the second quarter of 2015, with Train 2 expected to come on-stream in the third quarter.
Plateau production from both trains of around eight-million tonnes a year should be achieved by mid-2016.
The Queensland Resources Council has welcomed the project’s official launch, with acting CEO Greg Lane saying the project demonstrated the project owner’s confidence in Queensland.
“This project demonstrates what can be achieved through cooperation between government, project proponents, contractors and communities.”
He noted that the project owner has generated new natural gas supplies for Queensland and created a world-first export industry by producing LNG sourced from coal seam gas.
BG Group holds around 74% equity interest in the upstream resource and related infrastructure, and 100% of the project's common facilities on Curtis Island, including LNG storage tanks and jetty. In December last year, the company agreed to sell its 100% equity interest in QCLNG pipeline to APA Group in a deal valued at $5-billion.
The QCLNG pipeline transports gas from various fields in the Surat basin to the QCLNG export facility, at Gladstone, and consists of 543 km of transmission pipeline, three laterals, interconnections with the Gladstone LNG and Australia Pacific LNG project transmission pipelines.