BG Group today announced the start of commercial gas production from the second phase of the Itaú development in Bolivia, marking the delivery of the final key milestone set for the Group in 2013. With first production from Itaú Phase II, BG Group has delivered its promise to bring into production new oil and gas projects in Brazil, the UK, Thailand and Bolivia and to complete large planned maintenance campaigns on core assets in Kazakhstan and the UK.

This announcement follows delivery earlier this week of another major project milestone in Australia, with first gas transported onto Curtis Island, the site for the Queensland Curtis LNG project’s liquefaction plant.

BG Group Chief Executive Chris Finlayson said: "In February we set clear yet challenging milestones for the year as we focused on safety and excellence in execution. With first commercial production from Itaú Phase II we have now delivered all the milestones we promised, the product of hard work and dedication by the people working across our business. We have achieved what we set out to do, and importantly we have done it safely."