Australian Industrial Energy (AIE), Sydney, has let the wharf facility and pipeline construction contract for its proposed Port Kembla LNG receipt terminal to the SCSB joint venture composed of international companies Spiecapag and Soletanche Bachy.
The contract follows last month’s announcement of AIE’s first customer for the gas, energy retailer EnergyAustralia, which committed to a 5-year contract to buy at least 15 petajoules/year of gas starting in 2021.
Design work is under way for the port terminal construction, which will begin when AIE has made its final investment decision for the project, expected during this year’s second half.
The construction will include dredging in the harbor, building a wharf within the existing Port Kembla dock area, and laying a pipeline to connect the facility to the New South Wales east coast gas network at Cringila.
Construction of the terminal is expected to take 12-14 months and capital investment of $200-300 million (Aus.).
Last year AIE signed a deal with Hoegh LNG of Norway for the use of a floating storage and regasification unit for the proposed Port Kembla terminal.
The plan is for the FSRU to be moored at Berth 101 in Port Kembla’s inner harbor and accept cargos of LNG from incoming LNG carriers, store the LNG, and convert it onboard from liquid back to gas for transfer onshore and piping into the gas transmission network.
The facility is expected to have a capacity to supply around 100 petajoules/year with potential to expand to 140 petajoules/year.
The AIE consortium is composed of Squadron Energy (established by Australian mining magnate Andrew Forrest), Marubeni, and Jera of Japan.
