BG Group loads first LNG from Australia

LONDON, Dec. 29 (UPI) -- Two firsts were made in Australia with the loading of the inaugural cargo from the Queensland Curtis LNG project, British energy company BG Group said Monday.

"This is an immense achievement which demonstrates the company's ability to deliver a highly complex liquefied natural gas project," interim Chairman Andrew Gould said in a statement.

BG loaded the first cargo from the facility onto the Methane Rita Andrea, a vessel designed specifically to carry the super-cooled gas. The loading marks the first time ever for an LNG project supplied by coal seam gas.

Methane Rita Andrea has a storage capacity of around 5.1 million cubic feet of super-cooled gas. The company said a second vessel, Methane Mickie Harper, will arrive at the facility to take cargo during the first week of January.

The project is fed by a 260-mile underground pipeline from the Bowen and Surat basins in Queensland. Though BG Group was tight-lipped on cargo destinations, a spokesman last week said the first delivery "will most likely" go to a customer in Asia, where demand for natural gas is expected to grow by as much as 8 trillion cubic feet by 2020.

BG Group said it plans to add additional capacity to the LNG plant by the third quarter of 2015. At peak production, expected at some point during 2016, the facility will put out around 8 million tons of LNG per year.