First gas fed into Santos GLNG pipeline

Santos GLNG has fed natural gas into its 420 km gas transmission pipeline for the first time via its primary compressor station in the Fairview field in southwest Queensland. Rod Duke, Santos Vice President, Downstream GLNG, said: “Commissioning of our pipeline is an important milestone, not only for our business, but the Queensland LNG industry as a whole.”

Once fully commissioned and in operation, the pipeline will transport up to 40 million m³/d of natural gas from Santos GLNG’s gas fields to its gas liquefaction plant on Curtis Island, off Gladstone, where it will be cooled to -161 °C and shipped to customers as LNG. “Building such a big pipeline is no easy task. Construction began in 2012, and since then we’ve worked more than six million hours on this part of our project,” Duke said. “We’ve welded more than 36 000 segments of 1.05 m dia. pipe, weighing in excess of 250000 t in total.”

“We’ve also individually negotiated land access agreements with more than 120 landholders, and we’re proud of the strong relationships we’ve built with property owners and local communities over this time,” Duke continued. “I’d like to thank everyone involved in the pipeline project for safely reaching this milestone, as well as the communities along the pipeline route for their patience and support over the past two and a half years.”

Duke further noted that work in Santos GLNG’s gas fields across the Bowen and Surat Basins, and construction of the LNG plant at Curtis Island, were also progressing strongly towards first LNG in 2015. “We’re leading the way in building a new and exciting industry for Queensland, which is already delivering and will continue to deliver significant economic benefits for our state for many years to come,” said Duke.

The pipeline, which was constructed by Saipem Australia, will now be progressively filled with gas, section by section, with first gas into the Santos GLNG plant scheduled for later this year.

Adapted from press release by Rosalie Starling

Read the article online at: https://www.worldpipelines.com/business-news/20102014/first-gas-fed-into-santos-glng-pipeline-931/