The liquefied natural gas (LNG) is being transported by a 4.3 km of tunnel installed under ‘The Narrows’, connecting the Curtis Island plant to the mainland near Gladstone. The tunnel was constructed using a 4.1 m diameter Herrenknecht tunnel boring machine. The production of LNG marks a significant milestone for the project, with first cargo expected to be transported to Asian markets in the coming weeks. Santos Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer David Knox said “We said we’d produce first LNG around the end of the third quarter, and that’s exactly what we’ve done. Our upstream facilities are fully operational and performing well, we’re producing LNG on Curtis Island, and we’re now looking forward to safely delivering our first LNG cargo in the coming weeks.” The next phase for the project is to prepare Train 2 to be commissioned for start-up by the end of 2015. So far this stage of construction is progressing on time and on budget. Read more about the GLNG project on Trenchless Australasia or visit the Santos website.
HDD, Markets, Oil, gas and energy
GLNG production starts on Curtis Island
Image courtesy of Santos.