BG faced delay on Queensland Curtis liquefied natural gas plant

Release Date: 2011-05-12

QUEENSLAND'S recent heavy rains and floods could delay the expansion of BG Group's $18 billion Queensland Curtis LNG plant at Gladstone because the British gas giant has been unable to shore up gas reserves as quickly as it had hoped.

Speaking to investors in London on Tuesday night, chief executive Frank Chapman said BG was still targeting a mid-2012 sanction of a third LNG production train at Gladstone.

But to do so, BG needed to drill its coal-seam gas ground to increase the level of confidence it had in the 21 trillion cubic feet of what it called gross gas resources and turn them into reserves.

"The name of the game at the moment is the maturation of that reserves and resources base within that period," Mr Chapman said.

"That has suffered some impact because of the flooding and the impact that's had on access to drilling sites, but we're still focused on moving some of that prospective resource into a more, higher confidence level to underpin a third train."

Type:	NORMAL
Url:	http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/bg-faced-delay-on-queensland-curtis-liquefied-natural-gas-plant/story-e6frg8zx-1226054262885