BG Group wins state environmental approval for Queensland Curtis LNG

摘要

BG Group has cleared one of the final hurdles for its Queensland Curtis LNG plant after the Queensland state government granted environmental approval for the project.QCLNG is the second Queensland LNG project to be given state approval after the Santos/Petronas Gladstone LNG project last month (see Gas Matters Today, May 28). Both projects are now awaiting permits from the federal government.Federal approval is the final hurdle before BG Group takes a final investment (FID) on the 8.5 mtpa project, anticipated for the middle of 2010. The project has a full Sales and Purchase Agreement (SPA) with China’s CNOOC to buy 3.6 mtpa of LNG for 20 years and CNOOC will also take a 10% interest in the first of two liquefaction trains. The project is also underpinned by BG’s commitment to aggregate 3 mtpa of LNG for the planned Singapore LNG terminal. And Tokyo Gas in March became the first Japanese company to sign up for coal-bed methane-sourced LNG when it agreed a preliminary deal to purchase 1.2 mtpa from the project on a 20-year deal from 2015 and take a 1.25% stake in Train 2.However the Australian government’s proposed Resource Super Profits Tax (RSPT) has cast a shadow over the four Queensland-based LNG projects. Under the proposal a 40% duty would be levied on all onshore resource projects. Though it would mostly affect mining projects, the RSPT also covers the Queensland projects because they will be supplied by onshore coal-bed methane resources. Other Australia LNG projects are supplied by conventional offshore gas reserves and are covered by another tax code.Adding to the uncertainty is that Australia’s prime minister Kevin Rudd, a strong backer of the tax, was ousted in a coup by his own party on Wednesday and replaced by his deputy Julia Gillard. With a general election fast approaching, possibly by the end of the year, the drop in Rudd’s approval ratings from near 60% to under 40% in the space of a few months caused alarm within his party. His refusal to compromise on the RSPT seemed to be the last straw. Gillard said one of her first priorities was to put an end to the row with mining companies over the controversial RSPT and on Thursday she halted the government’s A$38 million advertising campaign promoting the tax.One Australia-based industry observer told Gas Matters Today it was still too early to tell what impact the RSPT will have on the CBM to LNG projects. “There is still much discussion to take place. The tax won’t be enacted before the next federal election (due by April 2011 at the absolute latest, but probably late this year) and as things are going at the moment the government will lose, in which case that will be the end of the RSPT.“The form of the tax on the CBM projects has still to be decided. They may be brought under the Petroleum Resource Rent Tax (PRRT) which applies to offshore oil and gas projects. Whatever is decided, it will apply to all CBM projects. Some projects might pull the plug, some might forge on; it depends on the cost structure of each project, the size and the appetite for risk of the participants; and the need or desperation of the participants to get a project up.”According to local media reports, two of the CBM to LNG projects have told the government that they would need to shelve their plans if the RSPT was introduced in its current form. However the report did not say which two. – JO’C