Shell-Arrow Queensland project to tap coal seam gas for export

13 June 2009

According to Shell, its Queensland liquefied natural gas facility which it plans to be big enough to ship up to 16 million tonnes a year of gas every year, could be as large as those proposed by its rivals. The company said this in a document it lodged with the state government of Queensland.

The Shell Australia LNG venture on Curtis Island will come up near the city of Gladstone the document says. The company will undertake an environmental impact report for the project according to a separate statement it made today.

The project would be the fifth venture to tap gas extracted from coal seams in central Queensland for conversion to liquid form and subsequent export to Asia. Output is expected to commence in 2014 or 2015 according to the document.

The company proposes building as many as four trains, or production units, at Curtis Island, it said in an Initial Advice Statement, to the state government.

The project will use coal-seam gas from fields it jointly owns with Arrow Energy Ltd.

Shell inked an agreement in June to pay $700 million for a 30 per cent stake in Arrow's coal seam gas acreage in Queensland and a 10 per cent interest in Arrow's international unit.