BY MAREX

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The Queensland Curtis LNG project successfully transported the first gas from the Surat Basin coal seam gas fields onto Curtis Island, Australia, where a liquefaction terminal is located. QGC, the wholly owned Australian subsidiary of BG Group, is developing the Queensland Curtis LNG (QCLNG) Project, the world’s first project to turn coal seam gas into LNG.

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Arrival of first gas onto the island enables commissioning work to begin on the first of two LNG production trains being developed by BG Group. This commissioning work is expected to begin in the first quarter of 2014.

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Commenting on the milestone, BG Group chief executive Chris Finlayson said: “Delivering this key milestone demonstrates the advanced stage of development at the world’s first coal seam gas to LNG project. We are now entering the final construction and commissioning phases and we remain firmly on track to deliver first commercial LNG in the second half of 2014, as scheduled and within the US$20.4 billion budget.”

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QCLNG is one of Australia’s largest capital infrastructure projects. Delivery of first gas onto the island marks the successful completion of a two-year task to lay more than 46,000 lengths of one-metre diameter steel pipe over 540 kilometres – the longest large-diameter buried pipeline in Australia. The site on Curtis Island can accommodate an expansion to 12 million tonnes of LNG a year, subject to demand.