OREANDA-NEWS. Premier of Queensland, the Hon Annastacia Palaszczuk MP and Federal Industry and Science Minister, the Hon Ian Macfarlane MP today toured the Queensland Curtis LNG (QCLNG) plant on Curtis Island, near Gladstone to mark the start of commercial operations from its first production train.

The event follows the commencement of production in December 2014 when QCLNG became the world’s first LNG facility to be supplied by natural gas sourced from coal seams and started loading the first cargo.  Since then, 16 LNG cargoes have been shipped from QCLNG as commissioning and performance testing of the plant was undertaken by constructor, Bechtel Australia Pty Limited. 

The partners in Train 1 are BG Group (50%) and the China National Offshore Oil Corporation (50%) which is also a foundation customer.

Production from the first LNG train is the result of more than four years’ development and construction on Curtis Island near Gladstone and in the gasfields of the Surat Basin where all critical path infrastructure is now complete.

QGC Managing Director, Mitchell Ingram said the project is generating natural gas supplies for the Queensland domestic market as well as the LNG export industry.

“We're proud to be delivering an important new energy industry for Queensland and world markets,” Mr Ingram said.

“Congratulations to our team and Bechtel who have worked hard to achieve this milestone. We also greatly appreciate the support received from our partners, governments, contractors, suppliers, our many landholders and community members.” 

The project will expand further with the start-up of the second train which remains on track for the third quarter of 2015.  At plateau production, expected during 2016, QCLNG will have an output of around 8 million tonnes of LNG a year.