The Santos Ltd.-led Gladstone LNG project in Queensland has introduced natural gas from its Surat-Bowen basin coal seam gas fields into the 420 km pipeline linking them to the LNG plant on Curtis Island for the first time.
This signals the start of commissioning of the line leading to the first shipment of LNG from Gladstone Harbor in 2015. The line will now be progressively filled with gas, section by section. First gas should arrive at the LNG plant late this year.
Santos says that once fully commissioned and in operation, the pipeline will transport up to 40 million cu m/day of gas from the fields to the Curtis Island plant.
Construction of the 1.05-m pipeline by Saipem Australia began in 2012 and involved welding more than 36,000 segments of pipe. The work included a 4.3 km subsea tunnel from the mainland to Curtis Island as well as more than 60 road crossings.
The joint venture also negotiated land access agreements with more than 120 landholders for 142 properties along the pipeline route.
Joint venture partner include operator Santos, Petronas, Total SA, and Korea Gas Corp.
