The APLNG Project’s Curtis Island facility welcomed the arrival of first gas from the project’s CSG fields in Queensland’s Surat Basin in February 2015, marking the completion of commissioning of the 530 km, 900-1,050 mm diameter gas transmission pipeline.
The loading of refrigerants marks a significant achievement in the commissioning and start-up phase of the project, propane and ethylene, two refrigerants used to cool the natural gas into a liquid, have begun arriving at the facility.
The refrigerants play a key role in the Optimized Cascade® process, the liquefaction technology owned by APLNG shareholder ConocoPhillips.
“The arrival of the refrigerants signifies a key step toward starting up the first LNG train. It enables us to meet the next milestones including test runs of the compressors, followed by final commissioning of remaining units of the first LNG train,” APLNG Chief Executive Officer Page Maxson said.
“Today’s achievement keeps us firmly on track for first LNG export in the second half of this calendar year.”
The project’s gas fired generators were started in April 2015, while the first phase of development and infrastructure in the gas fields is nearing completion.
Origin and ConocoPhillips each hold a 37.5 per cent interest in the project, with Sinopec holding the remaining 25 per cent.
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