Townsville gets Queensland coal gas

March 1, 2005
A 50-50 combine of CH4 Gas Ltd., Brisbane, and BHP Billiton Ltd.'s coal unit began contract deliveries of gas last month from the $61 million Moranbah project in central coastal Queensland to Townsville 965 km northwest of Brisbane.

By OGJ editors
HOUSTON, Mar. 1 -- A 50-50 combine of CH4 Gas Ltd., Brisbane, and BHP Billiton Ltd.'s coal unit began contract deliveries of gas last month from the $61 million Moranbah project in central coastal Queensland to Townsville 965 km northwest of Brisbane.

About 25 MMcfd of gas produced at 30 wells on 6,150 sq km ATP 364P in the Bowen basin flows to Townsville for power generation via a 390 km pipeline owned by the Queensland government enterprise Enertrade. The coals are as deep as 600 m.

Volumes are expected to reach 35 MMcfd by August 2005.

The joint venture holds a 15-year contract to supply as much as 270 bcf of gas to Enertrade.

Eastern Australian coal basins contain more than 300 tcf of gas in place, BHP Billiton noted. The company said that eventually 167 tcf of carbon dioxide could be stored in coal seams in the Bowen, Galilee, Cooper, Sydney, Gunnedah, and Clarence-Moreton basins. This represents the capacity to store CO2 emissions from 100% of Australian power generation for 20 years.