A unit of China National Offshore Oil Company (CNOOC) is to receive a milestone cargo from the Shell-operated Queensland Curtis LNG export plant in Australia.
CNOOC’s gas and power unit said in a statement on Friday that the two-train 8.5 mtpa liquefaction plant on Curtis Island in Queensland has exported the 800th cargo since it started operations in May 2015.
The 173,400-cbm Barcelona Knutsen left the facility on April 5 and is on its way to deliver the shipment to CNOOC’s Ningbo LNG import facility in Zhejiang, according to the statement.
Besides Shell, CNOOC owns 50 percent equity in Train 1 and Japan’s Tokyo Gas has 2.5 percent equity in Train 2.
Last year, Shell sold a stake in QCLNG to a unit of Global Infrastructure Partners for about 2.5 billion.
Shell, via its unit QGC, owns 80 percent of the QCLNG common facilities that include storage tanks, jetties and operations infrastructure that service the plant’s two trains.
Besides this deal, Shell’s QGC business recently revealed plans for a new large drilling campaign as it looks to boost gas supply to its QCLNG export plant and the domestic market.
Between now and 2024, QGC, along with its JV partners CNOOC and Tokyo Gas, plans to progressively drill and connect about 145 new gas wells.