OREANDA-NEWS. GE Oil & Gas (NYSE: GE) has played a pivotal role in the global liquefied natural gas (LNG) industry with its systems used in the first-ever large-scale production of LNG from coal seam gas (CSG) at BG Group’s Queensland Curtis LNG (QCLNG) plant on Curtis Island.

GE technology of gas turbines, centrifugal compressors and generators are integral parts of the QCLNG facility that has begun producing LNG for its first export shipment.

“This is a historic milestone, not only for GE and our customer, BG Group, but for the oil and gas industry globally,” said Mary Hackett, GE Oil & Gas Regional Director for Australia, New Zealand and Papua New Guinea. “This conversion of CSG to LNG on a large-scale truly unlocks this resource and GE has been working closely with our customer to deliver solutions across the entire hydrocarbon delivery chain to achieve this.”

The first LNG milestone is part of GE’s long-term commitment to the QCLNG project, having signed a 22-year Contractual Service Agreement with QGC, BG Group’s Australian subidiary and operator of QCLNG, in early 2013 to provide a broad range of advanced technology services. Featuring reliability guarantees on the equipment, the GE scope of work includes planned and unplanned maintenance of the installed GE equipment, which includes 15 aeroderivative gas turbines, 28 centrifugal compressors, gearboxes, generators and all auxiliaries. The agreement also includes monitoring and diagnostic services.

As one of Australia’s largest infrastructure projects, QCLNG is part of the growing Australian LNG industry which is expected to surpass Qatar as the biggest exporter of gas by 2020. The QCLNG plant is the first of three LNG projects to be constructed on Curtis Island, all of which will utilise GE’s technology. The resulting LNG will be primarily targeted for export markets including China, Japan and Singapore.