The first shipment of natural gas from the A$24.7bn ($18bn) Australia Pacific liquefied natural gas (APLNG) project has started from the LNG facility located on Curtis Island, near Gladstone in Queensland.
The LNG vessel Methane Spirit carried the first cargo.
APLNG is a joint venture project between ConocoPhillips (37.5%), Origin Energy (37.5%), and Sinopec (25%).
Australia Pacific LNG CEO Page Maxson said: “With our domestic customer portfolio, the start of Train 1 and the first export of LNG, Australia Pacific LNG has become the largest producer of natural gas in Eastern Australia.
“This position will only be strengthened as we expect to reach full production from two LNG trains by the end of 2016, reflecting our industry-leading 2P reserves position.”
The project’s two train LNG production facility is expected to supply nine million tonnes per annum (mtpa) of LNG at full capacity.
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By GlobalDataAbout 8.6 mtpa will be committed under long term take-or-pay contracts with Sinopec in China and Japan’s Kansai.
APLNG project includes the development of its coal seam gas (CSG) resources in the Surat and Bowen Basins, a 530km transmission pipeline, as well as a multi-train LNG facility on Curtis Island.
Origin Energy managing director Grant King said: “These are incredibly large, complex projects and exporting the first cargo is a tremendous achievement for the Origin team that led delivery of the upstream operations, and the ConocoPhillips team that led delivery of the downstream operations.
“LNG plants have a long operational life and Australia Pacific LNG is expected to deliver a significant amount of earnings to Origin.”
The project, which commenced LNG production in December 2015, will convert CSG to LNG.
Image: APLNG is a joint venture project between ConocoPhillips (37.5%), Origin Energy (37.5%), and Sinopec (25%). Photo: courtesy of Origin Energy Limited.
