Queensland Curtis LNG Terminal

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Queensland Curtis LNG Terminal is an LNG terminal in Queensland, Australia.

Location

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Project Details

• Operator: Shell
• Owner:
  • Train 1: Shell (50%), China National Offshore Oil Corporation (50%)
  • Train 2: Shell (97.5%), MidOcean Energy (2.5%)
• Parent company:
  • Train 1: Shell (50%), China National Offshore Oil Corporation (50%)
  • Train 2: Shell (97.5%), EIG Global Energy Partners (2.5%)
• Location: Curtis Island, Gladstone, Queensland, Australia
• Coordinates: -23.7693, 151.199 (exact)
• Capacity: 8.5 mpta
  • Train 1: 4.25 mtpa
  • Train 2: 4.25 mtpa
• Cost: 6 billion USD
• Status: Operating
• Type: Export
• Trains: 2
• Start year: 2015

Note: mtpa = million tonnes per year; bcfd = billion cubic feet per day

Background

Queensland Curtis LNG Terminal is an LNG terminal on Curtis Island in Queensland, Australia on the edge of the Great Barrier Reef. Curtis Island's three plants Australia Pacific LNG Terminal, Gladstone LNG Terminal, Queensland Curtis LNG Terminal are worth $70 billion.

Queensland Curtis LNG Terminal began exporting late 2014 or 2015.

In Summer 2017 Queensland Curtis LNG planned for the first major shut down of the facility after it began exporting late 2014.

Analysts from the Petroleum Economist predicted in July 2017 that two of the Curtis Island plants, Gladstone LNG Terminal and Queensland Curtis LNG Terminal, would likely operate below capacity until global demand exceeds supply.

As of 2017, Australia is the second largest LNG exporter after Qatar. The country exports almost 44 million tons a year.

In October 2022, LNGPrime reported that U.S.-based EIG's LNG unit MidOcean Energy had entered an agreement to purchase Tokyo Gas's share of four Australian LNG projects, including Queensland Curtis LNG Terminal. The deal was expected to close in the first half of 2023.

As of April 2023, Shell had recently taken a final investment decision (FID) on the first phase of the Arrow Energy’s Surat Gas Project, which will increase the gas available for Queensland Curtis LNG Terminal.

In March 2024, MidOcean Energy, the LNG unit of EIG, has completed its previously announced deal to buy Tokyo Gas's shares in the project.

Environmental Concerns

Dredging to widen and deepen the Port of Gladstone to allow for several LNG projects in the port caused some ocean turbidity and possible damage to wildlife the fishing industry.

In 2011, the Queensland Government announced it would close up to 311 square miles (500 square kilometers) of Queensland coast to fishing. At the same time the government warned citizens that seafood should not be handled or eaten.

Divisions emerged over whether dredging caused these issues. The release of acid sulphate from dredging may have damaged and killed turtles and fish. Fishermen had been warning the public about problems since October 2010. Thirty percent of the catch was infected for a month during August and September 2011.

Bloomberg published an article in 2017 citing Curtis Island's three plants in Australia (Australia Pacific LNG Terminal, Gladstone LNG Terminal, Queensland Curtis LNG Terminal) as an example of having exorbitant infrastructure duplication that it could have saved $10 billion on the combined $70 billion LNG projects. The three LNGs built separate jetties that now crowd the coastal land. Shared facilities could have produced the same amount of fuel with less damage to the coast.

Coal Seam Environmental Concerns

In December 2014, Queensland Curtis LNG became the world's first project to turn coal seam gas into LNG for export. Curtis Island's two other LNG plants, Australia Pacific LNG Terminal and Gladstone LNG Terminal also convert coal seam gas into LNG.

Coal seam gas projects in Australia are not without controversy.

Coal seam gas (abbreviated "CSG") is formed by the geological process of heating and compressing plant matter to create coal. Over millions of years, methane forms within the coal. The methane is trapped by water in the gaps and cracks between the coal molecules. These gaps are known as cleats. Australia has been found to have many deposits, and is increasingly mining them through hydraulic fracturing, also known as fracking.

CSG is a form of coalbed methane (CBM), or coalbed gas, and is a type of natural gas extracted from coal beds. In recent decades it has become an increasingly used source of energy in Australia, as well as the United States, Canada, and other countries.