Bechtel is on track to complete the construction of an additional three liquefied natural gas production trains on Curtis Island by the end of the year, quadrupling Queensland’s LNG production.
The company is constructing the state’s first three LNG plants, the first in the world to convert commercial quantities of coal seam gas into liquid form ready for export.
When complete, the operators of the plants – Queensland Curtis LNG, GLNG Plant Project and Australia Pacific LNG – will produce the commodity for export to their global customers.
“The projects will begin producing LNG in rapid succession over the second half of 2015,” Bechtel’s global LNG general manager Alasdair Cathcart said.
“It’s certainly a time of significant milestones on Curtis Island, as we move though final commissioning and eventually into handover of these projects to the operating teams.
“It’s all part of a carefully planned program to deliver unprecedented capacity to our customers, further building on our extensive global LNG experience.”
Six production trains will be operational when Bechtel hands over the LNG plants to the owner teams for
long-term operation.
Queensland Curtis LNG Train 1 has been producing LNG since December 2014, filling more than 16
ships with cargo to date. Bechtel is now working on delivering the second train for that project.
Concurrently, Bechtel teams on the GLNG and Australia Pacific LNG plants recently introduced
gas into their systems and began producing their own power as part of commissioning the first of
two production trains on each site.
The second production trains on each of these projects are expected to be operational in early 2016.
Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk and Federal Industry and Science Ministe Ian
Macfarlane recently toured the QC LNG plant commemorating the launch of commercial operations from the first production train.
“We’re proud to be delivering an important new energy industry for Queensland and world markets,” QGC managing director Mitchell Ingram said at the launch.
At full capacity, the three Curtis Island projects combined will produce about 25 million tonnes of LNG per annum for the global market, the equivalent to powering a city the size of Tokyo with 13 million people.
Bechtel is also the principal downstream contractor for the Chevron – operated Wheatstone Project in
Western Australia and is partnered with customers to build more than a third of the world’s LNG
liquefaction capacity currently under construction to provide alternative, cleaner fuel sources.
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