Oil and gas industry announcements: 2 January 2015

BASF

BASF Group company Wintershall Holding GmbH has sold its 15% share in South Stream Transport BV to OAO Gazprom. As per the shareholders’ agreement, the purchase price reimburses the cash invested by BASF. The parties agreed not to disclose the purchase price. South Stream Transport BV was founded to construct the offshore portion of the South Stream pipeline through the Black Sea.

BG

BG Group has announced that it has been loading the first cargo of LNG from its Queensland Curtis LNG (OCLNG) facility since 28 December 2014. The vessel being loaded is the Methane Rita Andrea. The second cargo from the facility will be loaded onto the Methane Mickie Harper which is expected in the first week of January. OCLNG is the world’s first LNG project to be supplied by coals seam gas. The start of production from the plant’s first LNG train is the result of more than four years of development and construction on Curtis Island. The project will expand further with the startup of the second train in the third quarter of this year. At plateau production, expected during 2016, QCLNG will have an output of approximately 8 million tpy of LNG.

Andrew Gould, Interim Executive Chairman said, “this is an immense achievement which demonstrates the company’s ability to deliver a highly complex LNG project. The startup of QCLNG is testament to the hard work, skill and dedication of all our employees, partners and customers including the thousands of individuals who have been involved in physically building the plant. The ongoing support from both the State Government of Queensland and the local councils of our upstream region and in Gladstone has also been pivotal in this development. We thank them all.”

GE

GE Oil & Gas has played a pivotal role in the global LNG industry with its systems used in the first ever large scale production of LNG from coal seam gas (CSG) at BG Group’s QCLNG plant on Curtis Island. GE technology of gas turbines, centrifugal compressors and generators are integral parts of the QCLNG facility that has begun producing LNG for its first export shipment. The first milestone is part of GE’s long term commitment to the QCLNG project having signed a 22 year Contractual Service Agreement with QGC, BG Group’s Australian subsidiary and operator of QCLNG, in early 2013 to provide a broad range of advanced technology services. Featuring reliability guarantees on the equipment, the GE scope of work includes planned and unplanned maintenance of the installed GE equipment, which includes 15 aeroderivative gas turbines, 28 centrifugal compressors, gearboxes, generators and all auxiliaries. The agreement also includes monitoring and diagnostic services.

Edited from press releases by Claira Lloyd

Read the article online at: https://www.hydrocarbonengineering.com/gas-processing/02012015/oil-gas-industry-announcements-2/