Gladstone Liquefied Natural Gas (GLNG)

About the GLNG facility on Curtis Island

Santos proposed site for a liquefied natural gas (LNG) facility on Curtis Island is approximately 5km north-east of Gladstone. The facility will be located within the Gladstone State Development Area (GSDA) declared by the state government.
The project still needs to meet the state governments stringent Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) process before it can proceed. Coal seam gas extracted from Santos reserves in the Bowen and Surat basins will be transported 435km via an underground pipeline corridor to the LNG facility. Here it will undergo a liquefaction process to transform the gas to liquid, reducing its volume 600 times, enabling vast quantities to be shipped to market. LNG is in strong demand in carbonintensive economies such as China and India because natural gas is the least carbon-intensive hydrocarbon-based energy source. Gas-fired electricity generation produces about half the greenhouse gas emissions of coal-fired generation and uses a minute fraction of the water that coal-fired electricity requires. This means that for every million tonnes of LNG that replaces coal-fired power generation, it is the equivalent of taking more than 500,000 cars off the road or powering 450,000 homes with renewable energy. It is proposed that the GLNG facility will contain: separation, filtration and treatment equipment to purify the gas refrigeration and liquefaction equipment LNG storage tanks with vapour recovery utilities including water, steam and power generation flare systems for facility, storage and loading. Accessing, constructing and operating the facility will require services and infrastructure, including: a bridge over the Narrows linking Curtis Island (Laird Point area) with the mainland (Friend Point area) a proposed new access road on Curtis Island which will link the site to the bridge and existing mainland regional road network marine facilities including a jetty and LNG ship loading facility (some dredging will be required to provide ship access). The bridge and road are expected to be used only by other commercial companies on the island.

Facility emissions
Resident located on Curtis Island and surrounding islands will not be affected by odours or fumes from the operational facility. No air toxics will be emitted from the facility.

CO2
Approximately 900,000 tonnes of CO2 per year will be emitted from the facility during its initial production phase of 3 million tonnes of gas per annum. In the context of Queenslands total emissions this equates to a 3% annual increase.

Light
Part of the EIS studies includes visual amenity. The facility will have a certain level of lighting at night, similar to other industrial facilities in Gladstone. Due to the undulating topography between South End and the site, the LNG facility will not be visible from South End apart from the flare stack which, at 10km away, will be barely visible.

Noise
Santos is currently modelling noise impacts and anticipates noise will be 5065dB(A)* at the facility fence boundary. To put this in context, normal conversations are about 40dB(A), noisy conversations about 50dB(A). Noise monitors have been placed at South End and surrounding islands to determine the baseline or current levels of existing noise, as part of the EIS noise monitoring study. Santos will study the effect of the prevailing breezes and their ability to carry sound across to neighbouring residents.
* dB(A) = decibels

Fact Sheet 10 v2 November 2008

What is liquefied natural gas?

Liquefied natural gas (LNG) is mostly methane gas that has been converted to a liquid through cooling to -161 degrees Celsius. This process significantly reduces the volumes to 1/600th of the original - similar to reducing the volume of a large beach ball to that of a ping-pong ball.

Next the gas is heated in inlet gas heaters. The final step in receiving the gas is gas metering. Metering facilities are used to measure the amount of gas received for use in pipeline monitoring and gas transfer accounting. The facility will also be equipped with internal pipeline cleaning equipment which is typically spherical in shape with an outside diameter equal to the pipelines inside diameter. This equipment is sent down pipelines for cleaning/ maintenance purposes.

How will the LNG facility work?

The proposed LNG facility will include equipment to separate, filtrate, treat and purify the coal seam gas, LNG storage tanks, marine facilities, utilities (possibly including power generation) and safety flares.

Treating the gas

After the gas is metered, it will enter the gas treating section to remove any impurities within the gas stream that are detrimental to the natural gas liquefaction process. These components are primarily carbon dioxide and water. The first step in the gas treatment process will be the removal of CO2 and trace sulphur-containing compounds (collectively called acid gas). If CO2 is not removed, it will solidify (freeze) during the LNG liquefaction process plugging equipment and causing maintenance outages. The feed gas stream containing CO2 then enters the bottom of a unit called an amine absorber, which will absorb these unwanted acid gases. This process is often called gas sweetening. After the gas leaves the amine treatment section it will be routed to a dehydration unit. As with CO2, if water is not removed from the gas stream prior to liquefaction, it will freeze once temperatures are reduced and will plug equipment. The first stage of dehydration will be to chill the gas to about 17 degrees Celsius in order to condense and drop out a large percentage of the water. The final gas treatment step will remove trace amounts of mercury (if present) in the gas. While the coal seam gas contains no measurable levels of mercury, if a small quantity is occasionally present it could cause corrosion/damage of brazed aluminium heat exchangers located downstream in the process. These mercury removal beds will serve as a safeguard to help ensure the integrity of the downstream equipment.

Receiving the gas

The GLNG facility will receive coal seam gas (CSG) from the gas fields via an underground gas transmission pipeline. The gas is almost pure methane with very few impurities. On entering the facility, gas from the transmission pipeline will pass through an inlet knockout drum to remove any liquids that may be present. The gas will then pass through inlet filters to remove any particles and/or mill scale that may be present in the gas.

Liquefying the gas

After treatment, the gas will be fed to the refrigeration system where it will be liquefied to produce the LNG product.

Ship loading facilities and processes

Loading of LNG on the ship will take approximately 14 hours. Ships will hold approximately 130,000-150,000m3 of LNG. The dimensions of a standard 150,000m3 ship are about 300m long by 50m wide.

For more information

If you have questions about the GLNG facility or other questions about the project, please contact the GLNG project team on:

Phone: Free call 1800 761 113 Email: info@glng.com.au Web: www.glng.com

Fact Sheet 10 v2 November 2008