Bechtel Ready to Quadruple Queensland LNG Production This Year

Bechtel is on track to complete the construction of an additional three liquefied natural gas (LNG) production trains on Curtis Island by the end of 2015, quadrupling Queensland’s LNG production. 

Bechtel 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 (BG Group), GLNG Plant Project (Santos, PETRONAS, Total & KOGAS) and Australia Pacific LNG (ConocoPhillips) - 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,” said Alasdair Cathcart, Bechtel’s global LNG general manager. “It’s certainly a time of significant milestones on Curtis Island, as we move through 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.

The Premier of Queensland, Annastacia Palaszczuk, and Federal Industry and Science Minister, Ian Macfarlane, recently toured the QCLNG plant commemorating the launch of commercial operations from the first production train. At the event QGC Managing Director, Mitchell Ingram, said: “We're proud to be delivering an important new energy industry for Queensland and world markets. Congratulations to our team and Bechtel who have worked hard to achieve this milestone.” 

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.