BG Group gives green light to Curtis LNG plant

Rick Wilkinson
OGJ Correspondent

MELBOURNE, Nov. 1 -- The BG Group has announced it has made a final investment decision to go ahead with its planned $15 billion coal seam gas-to-LNG plant on Curtis Island near Gladstone in Queensland.

The two-train, 8.5 million tonne/year plant will be constructed during the next 4 years along with field facilities in the Surat-Bowen basins and a 540-km buried pipeline linking the fields to the plant.

The project is expected to create more than 5,000 construction jobs and then 1,000 jobs on the operating side once the plant comes on stream in 2014.

The group estimates that the project will increase economic activity in Queensland by $31 billion (Aus.) over the project’s first decade. The company also will pay $1 billion (Aus.)/year in taxes to the Australian government and a further $300 million (Aus.)/year in royalties to the Queensland state government.

The first exports of LNG will begin in 2014 underpinned by agreements in Chile, China, Japan, and Singapore for the purchase of up to a total of 9.5 million tpy.