BG Group announced it had successfully reached a key milestone in the development of the Queensland Curtis LNG project, with first gas transported from the Surat Basin coal seam gas fields onto Curtis Island where the liquefaction terminal is located. Delivery of first gas onto the island marks the successful completion of a two-year task to lay more than 46 000 lengths of one-metre diameter steel pipe over 540 kilometres – the longest large-diameter buried pipeline in Australia.

Arrival of first gas onto the island enables commissioning work to begin on the first of two LNG production trains being developed by the Group as part of the integrated QCLNG project. This commissioning work is expected to begin in the first quarter of 2014. Commenting on the milestone, BG Group Chief Executive Chris Finlayson said:

“To have first gas on Curtis Island in a little over three years from project sanction is an immense achievement. It is a testament to the expertise and dedication of everyone working on this vast and complex mega-project.

“Delivering this key milestone demonstrates the advanced stage of development at the world’s first coal seam gas to LNG project. We are now entering the final construction and commissioning phases and we remain firmly on track to deliver first commercial LNG in the second half of 2014, as scheduled and within the $20.4 billion budget.

“We have overcome many challenges along the way, and we still have more hard work in front of us, but last February I set the tough target to have first gas on Curtis Island by the end of this year, and I am delighted that we have met it.”