BG eyes gas buys as it waits on Gladstone by:Matt ChambersFrom:...

BG eyes gas buys as it waits on Gladstone

by:Matt Chambers
From: The Wall Street Journal
May 30, 201312:00AM


BG Group's local chief says the British gas giant may buy gas from other parties to help it speed the ramp-up of the $US20 billion ($20.9bn) Queensland Curtis LNG plant it is building at Gladstone.

But he is confident the company has the onshore coal-seam gas reserves to provide the vast amount of gas needed by the big plant.

"We are looking to see whether third-party gas can help us in the ramp-up phase when we start up for a very short period of time," BG managing director of Australia Derek Fisher said at the Australian Petroleum Production and Exploration Association annual conference.

He would not comment on whether BG was in talks with Arrow Energy, which is looking to tie up with one of the three LNG projects under construction at Gladstone.

Fisher said it would take about six months to ramp up the first of the plant's two LNG trains and another year for the second train to get to full production.

QCLNG is on schedule for first gas next year, he said.

BG's recent announcement that it would take two or three years to shore up reserves for a third train -- which former chief executive Frank Chapman had said would aim for a 2012 construction start -- was not related to regulatory hurdles, he said.

It was more because BG's focus had been on its construction of the plant, which last year blew out by $US5bn to $US15bn.

"The pressure is off doing something quick as opposed to doing something correct," he said. "I think the 2012 target was always a very aggressive figure.

"Over the past year or year and half we've had to put our full focus not on the future but the here and now."

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/wall-street-journal/bg-eyes-gas-buys-as-it-waits-on-gladstone/story-fnay3vxj-1226653327199