JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – Oil and gas company Santos has started producing liquefied natural gas (LNG) at the second unit of the GLNG joint venture project, on Curtis Island, in Queensland, marking the successful delivery of the $18.5-billion two-train project.
Santos MD and CEO Kevin Gallagher on Thursday described the start-up of train 2 as a milestone for GLNG, which had already produced over two-million tonnes of LNG and shipped 32 cargoes.
First LNG production from train 1 occurred in September 2015, with the first GLNG export cargo having been shipped in October.
The GLNG project involved the development of gasfields from the Bowen and Surat basins in south-western Queensland and transporting the gas through a 420 km underground pipeline to a two-train LNG plant on Curtis Island, off the coast of Gladstone, with the capacity to produce 7.8-million tonnes a year of LNG at full capacity.
Santos’ LNG portfolio also included the Darwin LNG and Papua New Guinea LNG projects.
Australian major Santos is the operator and has a 30% interest in the project, while Petronas and Total hold a 27.5% interest each, and South Korea’s Kogas holds the remaining 15%.
“GLNG train 2 start-up adds to Santos’s LNG portfolio, which also includes the Darwin LNG and PNG LNG projects,” Gallagher said.