LNG Ltd seals technology pact

Australia’s Liquefied Natural Gas Limited has sealed a separate technology agreement with South Korea’s SK Engineering & Construction (SKEC) paving the way for a joint venture.

Australia’s Liquefied Natural Gas Limited is partnering with Arrow Energy to build an LNG export terminal near Gladstone, Queensland. The agreement relates to LNG Ltd’s “Optimised Single Mixed Refrigerant” (OSMR) LNG processing technology and sets out the framework for the company to establish a technology joint venture, owned 50% by each party, which lays the foundation for SKEC and LNG Ltd to collaborate on other LNG project opportunities. “Not only is it (the Gladstone LNG project) likely to be the first coalbed methane gas-to-LNG project in the world but with the application of the OSMR process technology it has the potential to set new industry benchmarks as to plant cost, efficiency and carbon emissions,” SKEC’s vice president Yang-Kyoo Ju said. The agreement covers the final design of the OSMR process technology for the Gladstone plant, the pursuit of other opportunities to market and commercialise OSMR and collaborate in the development of other LNG processing and related technology, LNG Representatives of SKEC are in Queensland this week to further the proposed engineering, procurement and construction consortium with Laing O’Rourke Australia, which signed a pre-construction services agreement with LNG Ltd for LNG storage tank selection and front-end engineering and design works in March. The Gladstone LNG joint venture plans first gas in 2011 with annual export volumes initially pegged around 1 million tonnes per annum. If the venture achieves this target it will be the first CBM to LNG facility in the world, beating the larger rival projects proposed by a Santos and Petronas venture, scheduled to start up in 2014, and a BG and Queensland Gas Company venture set to start up in 2013.
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