QGC

Last updated • 1 min readFrom Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia

Shell's QGC
FormerlyQGC Pty Ltd
Company type Private
IndustryEnergy
Headquarters,
Area served
Worldwide
Key people
Kim Code, SVP East
Products Natural gas
Owner Shell
Parent Shell Australia
Website shell.com.au/qgc

Shell's QGC (formerly, QGC Pty Ltd) [1] (initials for "Queensland Gas Company") is one of the largest of several Australian coalbed methane companies developing methane reserves within the Bowen and Surat Basins of Queensland. The company has an estimated value of around A$13 billion.

Contents

BG Group acquired Queensland Gas Company in November 2008. [2] QGC was included in the February 2016 acquisition of BG Group by Shell.

Operations

Coal seam gas extraction within the Surat and Bowen Basins of Queensland, Australia forms the basis of the company's main operations. QGC has constructed a coalbed methane liquefaction plant on Curtis Island off the coast of Gladstone in Central Queensland. The company has built a 540-kilometre (340 mi), 42-inch (1,070 mm) diameter pipeline from Miles to Gladstone, making it the longest buried pipeline of its type in Australia. [3] Work was delayed after QGC was found to have contravened state environmental laws. [4]

About 20% of Queensland's natural gas was produced by QGC in 2009. [5]

The company has a gas plant called Kenya, which is located near Tara, Queensland. [6] Three coal seam gas fields Lauren, Codie, and Kate are associated with the Kenya plant. [7] Leakage testing conducted in April and May 2010 found more than half of the wells in these gas fields were leaking extremely low level concentrations of methane. [7]

Environmental protests

In 2011, Bob Irwin the Australian environmentalist and founder of Australia Zoo, was arrested after protesting against QGC and refusing to obey an order from police to move on. [8] This was part of a long running protest by Tara protestors to disrupt the gas infrastructure being forced on them without their consent. [9]

ABC's Four Corners current affairs program produced several investigative reports on what has been described as the great Australian land grab and the environmental dangers of coal seam gas.

Related Research Articles

Coalbed methane extraction is a method for extracting methane from a coal deposit. Coal bed methane (CBM) is one of the factors restricting the safe production of coal in underground coal mines. It is also a form of high-quality energy that can be used in many fields such as power generation, heating, and chemical industries. CBM extraction is therefore carried out before extraction with a view of increasing the safety of mining coal beds, and as a useful energy resource to be exploited.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Condamine River</span> River in Queensland, Australia

The Condamine River, part of the Balonne catchment that is part of the Murray-Darling Basin, drains the northern portion of the Darling Downs, an area of sub-coastal southern Queensland, Australia. The river is approximately 500 kilometres (310 mi) long and rises on Mount Superbus, South East Queensland's highest peak, on the western slopes of the Great Dividing Range, approximately 100 kilometres (62 mi) from the east coast of Queensland, and then flows north west across the Darling Downs, then west. The Condamine River is a tributary of the Darling River.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Coalbed methane</span> Form of natural gas extracted from coal beds

Coalbed methane, coalbed gas, or coal seam gas (CSG) is a form of natural gas extracted from coal beds. In recent decades it has become an important source of energy in United States, Canada, Australia, and other countries.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Santos Limited</span> Australian energy company

Santos Ltd. is an Australian oil and gas exploration and production company, with its headquarters in Adelaide, South Australia. It owns liquefied natural gas (LNG), pipeline gas, and oil assets. It is the biggest supplier of natural gas in Australia, with its plants in the Cooper Basin in South Australia and South West Queensland supplying the eastern states of Australia. Its operations also extend to the seas off Western Australia and Northern Territory.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">BG Group</span> Former British multinational oil and gas company

BG Group plc was a British multinational oil and gas company headquartered in Reading, United Kingdom. On 8 April 2015, Royal Dutch Shell announced that it had reached an agreement to acquire BG Group for $70 billion, subject to regulatory and shareholder agreement. The sale was completed on 15 February 2016. Prior to the takeover, BG Group was listed on the London Stock Exchange and was a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index. In the 2015 Forbes Global 2000, BG Group was ranked as the 583rd largest public company in the world.

Underground coal gasification (UCG) is an industrial process which converts coal into product gas. UCG is an in-situ gasification process, carried out in non-mined coal seams using injection of oxidants and steam. The product gas is brought to the surface through production wells drilled from the surface.

The Surat Basin is a geological basin in eastern Australia. It is part of the Great Artesian Basin drainage basin of Australia. The Surat Basin extends across an area of 270,000 square kilometres and the southern third of the basin occupies a large part of northern New South Wales, the remainder is in Queensland. It comprises Jurassic through to Cretaceous aged sediments derived from Triassic and Permian arc rocks of the Hunter-Bowen orogeny. Towns situated above the basin, once dominated by agriculture, are experiencing a boom as mines and infrastructure in the area are expanded.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Shell Australia</span> Australian regional subsidiary of Shell plc

Shell Australia is the Australian subsidiary of Shell. Shell has operated in Australia since 1901, initially delivering bulk fuel into Australia, then establishing storage and distribution terminals, oil refineries, and a network of service stations. It extended its Australian activities to oil exploration, petrochemicals and coal mining, and became a leading partner in Australia's largest resource development project, the North West Shelf Venture.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tara, Queensland</span> Town in Queensland, Australia

Tara is a rural town and locality in the Western Downs Region, Queensland, Australia. In the 2021 census, the locality of Tara had a population of 1,980 people.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bowen Basin</span> Sedimentary province in Queensland, Australia

The Bowen Basin contains the largest coal reserves in Australia. This major coal-producing region contains one of the world's largest deposits of bituminous coal. The Basin contains much of the known Permian coal resources in Queensland including virtually all of the known mineable prime coking coal. It was named for the Bowen River, itself named after Queensland's first Governor, Sir George Bowen.

Condamine Power Station is a 140 MW combined cycle power station near Miles on the western Darling Downs in Queensland, Australia. The station is located 8 kilometres (5.0 mi) east of Miles on the south side of the Warrego Highway. The Condamine Power Station is owned by QGC Limited, a subsidiary of Royal Dutch Shell. Commissioned in June 2009, it has been claimed to be the world’s first combined-cycle power station entirely fired by untreated coal seam gas direct from the gasfield and Australia's first steam turbine condenser cooled by coal seam methane wastewater. However, the Townsville Power Station at Yabulu was commissioned earlier in February 2005 after being converted from a peak load to a combined cycle configuration but was designed to consume only treated coal seam gas.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Energy in Queensland</span>

Queensland's energy policy is based on the year 2000 document called the Queensland Energy Policy: A Cleaner Energy Strategy. The Queensland Government assists energy development through the Department of Energy and Water Supply. The state is noted for its significant contribution to coal mining in Australia. The primary fuel for electricity generation in the state is coal with coal seam gas becoming a significant fuel source. Queensland has 98% of Australia's reserves of coal seam gas. An expansion of energy-intensive industries such as mining, economic growth and population growth have created increased demand for energy in Queensland.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gladstone LNG</span> Liquefied natural gas plant in Queensland, Australia

Gladstone LNG (GLNG) is a liquefied natural gas (LNG) plant in Queensland, Australia. It is a leading project in the conversion of coal seam gas into LNG. The project was announced in July 2007. Its first LNG tanker load departed 16 Oct 2015. The second LNG production train began making LNG on 26 May 2016

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sacred Headwaters</span> Drainage basin and source of three rivers

The Sacred Headwaters is a large subalpine drainage basin centred around Klappan Mountain of the Klappan Range in northern British Columbia. It is the source of three wild salmon rivers: the Skeena River, Nass River, and Stikine River. It is also referred to as the Klappan Valley, although the Klappan—a tributary of the Stikine River—is only one of the area's watersheds. Local Tahltan people call the area Klabona, which is loosely translated as "headwaters".

The economy of Queensland is the third largest economy within Australia. Queensland generated 19.5% of Australia's gross domestic product in the 2008-09 financial year. The economy is primarily built upon mining, agriculture, tourism and financial services. Queensland's main exports are coal, metals, meat and sugar.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Geology of Queensland</span>

The geology of Queensland can be subdivided into several regions with different histories. Along the east coast is a complex of Palaezoic to Cainozoic rocks while much of the rest of the state is covered by Cretaceous and Cainozoic rocks. A Precambrian basement is found in the north west and Cape York regions. The Thomson Orogen occurs in the central and southern parts of Queensland, but is mostly covered by younger basins.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Coalbed methane in the United States</span>

The 2017 production of coalbed methane in the United States was 0.98 trillion cubic feet (TCF), 3.6 percent of all US dry gas production that year. The 2017 production was down from the peak of 1.97 TCF in 2008. Most coalbed methane production came from the Rocky Mountain states of Colorado, Wyoming, and New Mexico.

Dayne Pratzky is an Australian anti-fracking activist known colloquially as the Frackman. He is also the subject of a 2015 feature-length documentary film of the same name produced by Smith & Nasht.

Kumbarilla is a town and rural locality in the Western Downs Region, Queensland, Australia. In the 2021 census, the locality of Kumbarilla had a population of 223 people.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bowen Basin Coalfields</span> Coal mine with gas fields in Australia

The Bowen Basin Coalfields contains the largest coal reserves in Australia. This major coal-producing region contains one of the world's largest deposits of bituminous coal. The Basin contains much of the known Permian coal resources in Queensland including virtually all of the known mineable prime coking coal. It was named for the Bowen River, itself named after Queensland's first Governor, Sir George Bowen.

References

  1. "ASIC National Names Index". Archived from the original on 30 September 2011.
  2. "BG Group History 2008". BG Group. Archived from the original on 28 September 2011. Retrieved 25 June 2011.
  3. (16 July 2008). Bechtel to build Curtis LNG plant Archived 2011-10-06 at the Wayback Machine . (Gladstone Observer).
  4. (24 March 2011). QGC stops work on Surat Basin, Gladstone gas pipeline Archived 2011-10-02 at the Wayback Machine . (Industry Search).
  5. "Who we are". Queensland Gas Company. Archived from the original on 26 September 2011. Retrieved 25 June 2011.
  6. Georgia Waters (6 June 2011). "Leaking CSG wells 'no threat': Minister". Brisbane Times . Fairfax Media. Archived from the original on 8 June 2011. Retrieved 25 June 2011.
  7. 1 2 Investigation report: Leakage testing of coal seam gas wells in the Tara 'rural residential estates' vicinity (PDF). Department of Employment, Economic Development and Innovation. 2010. p. 4. Archived from the original (PDF) on 21 March 2012. Retrieved 25 June 2011.
  8. (12 April 2011). Steve would have been proud, Bob Irwin says after arrest Archived 2011-05-18 at the Wayback Machine . Brisbane Times. (Fairfax Media).
  9. John McCarthy (10 August 2010). Tara residents blockade Queensland Gas Company to stop seismic testing. The Courier-Mail