Jobs bonanza in LNG project
4th February, 2008
BRITISH energy giant BG Group has staked a claim on Queensland's massive coal seam gas reserves with an $8 billion project that guarantees the company a 20-year supply of LNG for the export market and the power to fast-track and consolidate similar developments.Partnering with one-time takeover target the Queensland Gas Company, BG Group will help develop the Surat Basin in southwestern Queensland and pipe gas 380km to a new LNG plant it expects to build in Gladstone.
The project will create 1000-plus construction jobs, and at least 100 permanent jobs, along with a new source of water for the southwest and billions of dollars in royalties for the Queensland Government.
BG Group, which has also taken a financial and management stake in QGC, will buy and own all LNG produced by the plant over a 20-year period and expects QGC to provide 190petajoules a year - the equivalent of the entire southeast Queensland domestic market at present. But QGC anticipates up to one-third of the coal seam gas it produces from the Surat basin will go to the domestic market.
With several other LNG projects already proposed for Queensland, QGC managing director Richard Cottee - who, with this deal, has again distanced his company from the corporate predators - yesterday predicted there would be further co-operation and consolidation in the market.
BG Group business development manager David Maxwell said the LNG plant would direct 3-4 million tonnes of LNG into the company's portfolio each year, to be on-sold as required, and he expected that to increase as other non-QGC sources were linked to the plant.
The first shipment is expected in 2013 and BG Group - which has not given up its search for new gas sources in Asia nor the pursuit of a PNG gas pipeline - has already held talks with Gladstone port authorities.
Mr Cottee acknowledged a shortage of skilled workers in the mining industry, but said he believed offering jobs in Gladstone, and near the established towns of southwest Queensland, would provide "human and social" incentives. "We think that if we've got to compete (for workers) we've got a good chance of winning," he said.
Queensland Premier Anna Bligh said the Government had used its 13 per cent electricity-from-gas policy, set to increase to 18 per cent by 2020, as a market lever to support projects like the BG Group-QGC deal.
The AUSTRALIAN - Sean Parnell - February 04, 2008