Australian LNG has finally come of age in the latter part of 2014, with the first shipments of gas expected to leave Curtis Island before the end of the year.

It’s been a long road, as gas exploration and construction companies raced to tap into the rich coal-seam gas supplies that lie deep beneath the Surat Basin in Queensland. Plentiful supplies of gas have created a new ‘gold rush’ as gas companies realise hungry Asian consumers are lining up to pay handsomely for the final product – Liquified Natural Gas.

Global energy companies like British Gas, Conono Philips Co, Origin Australia Pacific LNG (APLNG) and Santos GLNG have been constructing massive LNG production facilities on Curtis Island off Gladstone. Bechtel have been spearheading the construction drive and now the first LNG is almost ready to flow in just a few days.

The Queensland Gas Company (QGC) anticipates loading its first shipment of liquefied natural gas before the end of the year.

QGC’s Queensland Curtis LNG plant is the world’s first project to convert natural gas from coal seams in the Queensland Surat Basin into liquefied natural gas.

A spokesman for QGC said the LNG would be transported in one of the company’s specially-designed LNG ships, the Methane Rita Andrea, which is currently moored off Gladstone.

QCLNG LNG facts

QCLNG�has taken 4 years to get to the stage where gas was found in the Surat Basin, to constructing a 540km pipeline from the gas fields to Curtis Island and constructing the LNG plant. When the CSG reaches the Curtis Island processing plant via the network, it is chilled to -162 degrees Celsius.

The processes used at the LNG production facility shrinks the gas by about 600 times its original volume, which in turn makes it more economical to transport to Chile, China, Japan and Singapore.

The mammoth project connects over 2000 onshore wells, that cover a colossal 4500 square kilometres.

Always looking to cash in on the opportunities available in the energy sector, QCLNG’s parent company BG Group this month entered an agreement to sell that pipeline for $5 billion to APA Group.

While�QCLNG is first off the block, Australian-owned Santos GLNG will deliver its first LNG shipment in the second half of 2015.