President of Santos Gladstone LNG provides an update on the Project

Mark Macfarlane, President, Santos GLNG: The liquid natural gas export industry is the end game for our business and this month I would like to tell you more about what it is going to look like.

Currently there is a strong focus on the construction and gas development phase of our Project and I think it is important to explain what the long-term goal is and the benefits it will bring for Queensland.  

LNG is simply natural gas in a liquid form. 

The coal seam natural gas we are delivering to our LNG Plant on Curtis Island via pipeline will go through a process of being converted to liquid so that it can be transported on to LNG ships in Gladstone Harbour to go to our international buyers from 2015.

At the destination point there are regasification facilities to convert the liquid back to a gas to be transported again by a pipeline system for energy use.

LNG has been around for over 100 years. In fact the first LNG plant was built in West Virginia in the US in 1912. 

What has changed is that today gas is playing a huge role in meeting the growing world demand for energy.

The International Energy Agency predicts that gas will overtake coal by 2030 and meet one quarter of global energy demand.  By 2035 it will be within striking distance of overtaking oil.

This strong demand for natural gas from the world, especially from Asia, has placed Queensland perfectly as a major hub for LNG export and set us up to reap the economic benefits that produces. By 2018 Queensland will rank equal third as a global LNG producer alongside Algeria and Malaysia.

Natural gas is also a better environmental alternative for lowering carbon emissions. It is the cleanest of the gases and generally has the highest levels of methane and the lowest levels of liquids. 

This month, I have introduced you to two of our team members that are preparing our LNG Plant for operation, Yahya Ibrahim (http://www.theresourcechannel.com.au/blog/gm-downstream-operations-santos-gladstone-lng-shares-insights) and Mark Goldup (http://www.theresourcechannel.com.au/blog/production-manager-gladstone-lng-i-think-future-lng-huge-queensland).  And to give you some insight into how we sell our gas to the world, Matt Wallach explains his role on the Project (http://www.theresourcechannel.com.au/blog/glng-supply-planning-optimisation-manager-we%E2%80%99ve-secured-world-class-buyers-our-gas).  

For the next three years we will continue building our Project and employing our people from the ground up, so that from 2015 we can start this exciting LNG export phase.

Mark