OREANDA-NEWS. The 7.8mn t/yr Gladstone LNG (GLNG) venture in Queensland, Australia announced its first shipment with a LNG carrier now bound for South Korea.

The first cargo is being carried by the Malaysian-owned 153,000m? Seri Bakti that will be delivered to South Korea in the coming weeks, said Australian independent Santos, the operator of the two-train, $18.5bn GLNG. The Seri Bakti had been expected to leave GLNG for South Korea over 10-11 October, but technical problems with one of the plant's LNG compressors and its filters delayed the start of the first shipment.

A second vessel, the 160,000m? Cool Voyager, is scheduled to arrive at GLNG for cargo loading on 20 October. The destination of GLNG's second cargo is unclear.

GLNG represents the largest single investment by Santos in an upstream project. Santos in August said it was planning to sell some of its assets to pay down the debt it has accumulated to finance its 30pc share of the GLNG project.

Production from the first train started in September and work on the second train is continuing to progress, with the second train expected to be ready for start-up by the end of the year with first LNG in the second quarter of 2016, Santos said.

The GLNG project construction began in 2011 and has taken more than 95mn work hours to date with more than 10,000 people have worked on the project which saw more than A$15bn ($11bn) invested Australia-wide, including A$8bn in Queensland.

The GLNG project receives coal-bed methane (CBM) gas from the onshore Surat and Bowen basins via a 420km pipeline. The other GLNG partners are Malaysian state-owned oil firm Petronas and Total, each holding 27.5pc and the remaining 15pc is owned by South Korean gas firm Kogas. Petronas, Total and Kogas all have long-term LNG purchase agreements with GLNG.

The shipments marks the second of the CBM-LNG projects located on Curtis island at the Queensland port of Gladstone, with the two-train 8.5mn t/yr Queensland Curtis LNG venture operated by UK energy firm BG.

The third project, the 9mn t/yr Australia-Pacific LNG (APLNG) is expected to start first shipments next month, according to its upstream operator Australian energy firm Origin Energy.

The shipment also marks the fifth Australian LNG project to start exports. There are another five under construction with APLNG and the Chevron-operated 15.6mn t/yr Gorgon LNG project offshore Western Australia scheduled to start shipments within the next six months.