Mr Burke has established more than 300 new conditions that the projects’ proponents must adhere to in order to maintain the environmental approvals, including groundwater protection related to the production of coal seam gas (CSG), which will be used as feedstock for both projects.
The Australian Petroleum Production & Exploration Association (APPEA) said that the conditional approvals would help establish an export gas industry in Gladstone that would generate 18,000 jobs, increase Queensland’s gross state product by 1 per cent and generate approximately $A1 billion in annual state taxes.
“[The] announcement establishes Queensland, through its natural gas resources, at the forefront of efforts to transition the economies of Asia to a less carbon-intensive future,” APPEA Chief Executive Belinda Robinson said.
Queensland Premier Anna Bligh said “Pending final government approvals and investment decisions by the companies, work could possibly start on these two projects later this year.”
Queensland Resources Council Chief Executive Michael Roche said that “exhaustive” government approval conditions combined with a host of new environmental and water management laws and rules would make Queensland’s CSG-to-LNG export operations “the most highly regulated resource projects in the state’s history”.
Santos Chief Executive David Knox said that his company still expects to make a final investment decision on the first LNG train for GLNG by the end of 2010.
Mr Burke also approved the dredging of Gladstone Port’s western basin, which will be carried out by the Gladstone Ports Corporation.
The $A8 billion QCLNG Project, to be operated by BG Group subsidiary QGC, will have an initial production capacity of 7.4 MMt/a of LNG from two trains, with provision for a third train.
The $A7.7 billion GLNG Project is a joint venture development between Santos, Petronas and Total.
In addition, participants in the South Australian Cooper Basin (SACB) joint venture are in discussions to potentially supply 750 PJ of gas to the GLNG Project.
The SACB joint venture comprises Santos with a 66.6 per cent interest, Beach Energy with a 20.21 per cent interest and Origin Energy with a 13.19 per cent interest.
Santos has said that an oil-linked pricing formula for the gas would accelerate the monetisation of the SACB joint venture’s 2P reserves in the Cooper Basin.
Beach has said that the terms of the agreement are still subject to “ongoing dialogue between all relevant parties”.