A joint venture between McConnell Dowell Constructors and Consolidated Contractors Australia secured a contract for the gas pipeline while the Baulderstone Bilfinger Berger Services JV won the upstream facilities contract. These two contracts follow the recent awarding of the rig contract to Savanna Energy Services. Origin Energy executive general manager of upstream oil and gas Paul Zealand said design studies for the upstream facilities and gas pipeline had been carried out and detailed engineering and preparatory works would continue with the constructors. “Both the pipeline and upstream contracts are scaleable to include the entire 450-kilometre gas transmission pipeline construction and a portion of the gas production facilities for the project,” he said. “Importantly, both contractors also share Australia Pacific LNG’s expectations with respect to safety and local content.”The APLNG project is a 50:50 JV between Origin Energy and ConocoPhillips, which plans to develop Australia’s largest CSG reserve base into a 14-16 million tonne per annum CSG-to-LNG plant on Curtis Island in the Port of Gladstone, Queensland. A final investment decision for the project is expected at the end of 2010 with first LNG production targeted for 2014.
