Australia Pacific launches second train

Australia Pacific LNG launched production in the second train of its facility on Curtis Island off Queensland on Monday, staking its bid to a major share of Australia’s domestic and international energy supplies.

The facility, whose first train launched last December and which is designed to produce 9 million tonnes of LNG per year from coal seam gas, is the largest of three such plants to have opened on Curtis Island in recent years.

Both Australia Pacific and its competitors – 7-million-tpy Santos GLNG and 8.5-million-tpy Queensland Curtis LNG – hired US engineering giant Bechtel to construct the plants, turning the construction on Curtis Island into one of the largest investment projects in Australia’s history.

There has been no official announcement when Australia Pacific plans to ship its first cargo from the second production train, but traders told Reuters it was due in the second half of October.

“As the largest producer of natural gas in eastern Australia, we are underpinned by a world-class coal seam gas resources position,” said Australia Pacific’s CEO, Page Maxson, in a company press release.

“We currently provide approximately 25 percent of domestic gas to the east coast market, with sufficient reserves to meet both LNG and domestic demand.”