$15 billion boost to Australian LNG project 5 November 2010 The UK’s BG Group has announced that it will commit $15 billion to develop a coal seam liquefied natural gas (LNG) project in Queensland. The Queensland Curtis LNG project will involve building an LNG plant at Gladstone, the construction of a 540 kilometre underground pipeline network, and the expansion of existing gas fields in the Surat Basin near Chinchilla. This will be the world’s first liquefied natural gas plant to use coal seam gas as feedstock. The Australian Deputy Prime Minister, the Hon Wayne Swan MP, said that the project will deliver substantial and wide ranging benefits to both the state and national economies. “In Queensland alone it is estimated that this project will increase gross state product by up to $32 billion between 2010 to 2021 and will add nearly 10 per cent – around $4 billion a year – to the value of Queensland's annual exports,” Mr Swan said. The Managing Director of BG Group’s Australian subsidiary QGC, Catherine Tanna, said that this is the single biggest investment every undertaken by the BG Group, one of the UK’s largest companies. The project will be developed by the BG Group’s Australian subsidiary, QGC, and have an operating life of 20 years, with the first shipments from Gladstone scheduled for 2014. More information |