BG Group reached a key milestone in development of the Queensland Curtis LNG (QCLNG) project, with first gas transported from the Surat Basin coal seam gas fields onto Curtis Island where the liquefaction terminal is located.
Delivery of first gas to the island marks the successful completion of a two-year task to lay more than 46 000 lengths of 1m-diameter steel pipe over 540km – the longest large-diameter buried pipeline in Australia.
Arrival of first gas onto the island enables commissioning work to begin on the first of two LNG production trains being developed by the group as part of the integrated QCLNG project. This commissioning work is expected to begin in the first quarter of 2014.
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 USD 20.4B budget.
