Gladstone set to be LNG hub
20th February, 2008
The Courier Mail reports that Gladstone's emergence as a potentially major liquefied natural gas exporter continues apace. It states that Perth-based LNG Ltd, which wants to build a $400 million, million-tonne-a-year facility at Fisherman's Landing, has been granted conditional access to the site (by the Central Queensland Port Authority) to do its environmental impact studies.
The company is aiming for a financial close by late this year, with first LNG shipments scheduled for January 2011. It has reported that it has received strong expressions of interest from numerous existing LNG buyers.
Meanwhile, Santos plans to spend a further $200 million this year assessing its proposed $5-7 billion Gladstone LNG project, which it announced in mid-2007. About half the proposed total would be spent in Gladstone and the rest on gas development.
Santos has already secured a site in Gladstone for its proposed 3-4 million-tonne-a- year facility and has been granted significant project status by the State Government. The company has begun its marketing and says it has strong interest recorded by potential gas buyers in Asia and the United States. The company is aiming to make a final investment decision by the end of next year, which would enable first shipments by early 2014.
In October 2007, coal seam gas producer Sunshine Gas Ltd teamed up with Japan's Sojitz Corp to develop a A$570 million (US$500.17 million) liquefied natural gas (LNG) plant in Gladstone. Gas will be supplied from Sunshine's Lacerta coal seam gas project in the Southern Bowen Basin and the Surat Basin in Queensland.
Sunshine Gas managing director Tony Gilby said the aim was to have a bankable feasibility study completed by the end of calendar 2008 and production underway during the first quarter of 2012.