First production train installed at Gladstone LNG project

Construction company Bechtel has completed installation of the first LNG production train for the Santos Ltd.-led Gladstone LNG facility on Curtis Island, Queensland.

The $20 billion project will have two trains—the second due for completion late this year (OGJ Online, May 13, 2014).

Work is now under way to connect the individual parts of the first production train. They will then be tested as part of the overall system.

The first train is made up of 82 modules, built at Bechtel’s yard in the Philippines. The company is the engineering, procurement, and construction contractor for all three CSG-LNG facilities under construction on Curtis Island (Santos’ GLNG, BG’s Queensland Curtis LNG, and Origin Energy’s Australia Pacific LNG).

This cluster of projects makes it the largest concentration of Bechtel construction work in the world.

In the meantime it has been reported that China’s Hudong-Zhonghua Shipbuilding Group has been awarded a contract to supply four LNG carriers to service the BG Group’s CSG-LNG project on the island.

This follows an announcement by Teekay LNG Partners that it has acquired from BG Group a 30% interest in two of the carriers and a 20% interest in the other two.

The carriers will be delivered between September 2017 and January 2019 and will operate under 20-year, time-charter contracts plus extension options with BG subsidiary Methane Services Ltd.

The carriers will have capacity for 174,000 cu m and will be tri-fuel diesel electric vessels.

First exports from the Queensland Curtis LNG project are scheduled for December. The project will produce 8.5 million tonnes/year of LNG.