OREANDA-NEWS. Australia's 7.8mn t/yr Gladstone LNG (GLNG) plant is nearly 95pc complete, with first LNG production on track to start around the end of the third quarter.

All three of GLNG's major natural gas compression hubs are now operational, marking the end of the first phase of gas field construction, said plant operator Australian independent Santos. This comes after the recent completion of the 145TJ/d (3.87mn m?/d) Roma Hub 2 and its handover to Santos' long-term operations team. This was in line with its earlier expectation of a mid-2015 start-up for the hub.

GLNG's 250TJ/d Fairview Hub 4 and 160TJ/d Fairview Hub 5 are currently operational and have been producing above nameplate capacity. All three gas hubs are situated in Queensland state's Roma region, where the bulk of GLNG's coal-bed methane gas reserves are located.

Work on the three hubs began in 2012. At nameplate capacity, the hubs can process around 555TJ/d of gas, or around 11,000 t/d of LNG equivalent.

Santos has a 30pc operating stake in GLNG, while Total and Malaysia's state-owned oil firm Petronas each hold 27.5pc. South Korea's state-run Kogas owns the remaining 15pc. Petronas and Kogas have offtake agreements for a total of around 7.2mn t/yr of supplies from GLNG.