QGC Pty Limited (previously Queensland Gas Company) is part of the international BG Group which was created in 1996. BG Group acquired Queensland Gas Company in November 2008 and QGC was delisted from the Australian Stock Exchange in 2009. The company has an estimated value of around A$13 billion.
Also see our story: How the Queensland Government fracked the state & Index of Gas Explorers in Australia
QGC is developing methane reserves within the Bowen and Surat Basins of Queensland. The company has a gas plant called Kenya, which is located near Tara, Queensland. Three coal seam gas fields Lauren, Codie, and Kate are associated with the Kenya plant.
QGC is constructing a $15 billion coal seam gas methane liquefaction plant and gas export terminal on Curtis Island off the coast of Gladstone in Central Queensland. The project includes a 540-kilometre, 1,070 mm diameter gas pipeline from Miles, Surat Basin to Gladstone.
Work was delayed in March 2011 when QGC was found to have contravened state environmental laws after land was cleared without appropriate approvals.
QGC says a contractor may have breached federal and state environmental conditions in clearing a six-kilometre-long, 40-metre-wide route for the pipeline near Dalby.
Tests done in April and May 2010 (dead link) found more than half of the wells in these gas fields were leaking methane. That report is mirrored on this website (PDF) because it was removed from the Queensland government website.
The BG Group chairman is currently Catherine Tanna, a RBA Board member and former QGC managing director, who was appointed in April 2012.
Search company announcements from QGC prior to their de-listing.
Pipeline work impacts on site of historic Callide Valley pub
4 November 2013 – Central Telegraph (dead link removed 2023) – THE historic site of the Callide Valley’s first pub has been bulldozed by gas pipeline workers.
Up until last week, all that remained of the old Rainbow Hotel on Coal Rd, built in 1874, were its stumps and a skeleton of its stockyard.
But now even that has been levelled, with nothing left but a smoothed-over pile of dirt.
Fortunately, a small adjacent graveyard bearing the headstones of original tenant Catherine O’Reilly and her son Thomas and a bottle dump containing century-old broken glass bottles are unscathed.
A trench for the QGC’s pipeline was dug about 60m from the hotel site, with the dirt from the trench placed on top of the hotel site.
When the trench was filled in, the dozer pushed the dirt and the remaining stumps and timber fences into the hole.
Banana Shire Historical Society vice-president Don Longbottom said it was disappointing that the site had been damaged.
“It is history to us and only rubbish to them (pipeline workers),” Mr Longbottom said.
A QGC spokeswoman said that QGC identified the location of the former Rainbow Hotel as a potential local historical site in its Environmental Impact Statement.
____________________________________
QGC stops work on pipeline
23/03/2011 QGC Pty Limited has stopped work on its major gas pipeline between its Surat Basin gas fields and Gladstone because some environmental plans for soil and species management have not been approved.
QGC Senior Vice President Jim Knudsen said the company became aware on Wednesday, 16 March, that the lack of approved plans might breach environmental conditions.
The company therefore ordered its contractor, MCJV, to stop work on Thursday, 17 March, pending a compliance review.
“QGC yesterday advised Queensland and Commonwealth Government regulators of the potential breaches and that we had stopped work until we meet all of our obligations,” Mr Knudsen said.
He said QGC became aware of potential breaches during an internal review after the contractor began clearing a 6km by 40m right-of-way for construction of a section of pipeline near Dalby.
“We do not believe the clearing has had an adverse impact on protected plants and animals and the potential breaches do not affect the safety of people,” Mr Knudsen said.
“We have stopped work because we are committed to doing the right thing and we take seriously our obligations to meet more than 1500 state and federal conditions on the Queensland Curtis LNG Project.”
Mr Knudsen said work would not resume until conditions were met, and the company would cooperate fully with regulators.
QGC does not expect a material impact on project schedule.
The suspended pipeline work is unrelated to the connection of five wells to an underground pipeline system about 24km north of Tara.
Related Stories
Meet the Frackers: Gas explorers in Australia
Big Oil & Gas says John Butler should thank them for plastic
LNG producers must make more gas available to manufacturers
Fugitive methane emissions cast dark cloud over Australia’s Net Zero ambitions
Best way to reduce climate change is stop gas industry methane leaks
Testimony of a Coal Seam Gas drill worker
Carbon Credits Used to Plug Orphan Oil & Gas Wells to Halt Methane Emissions
Significant fracking pollution incidents on cattle station in Beetaloo Basin NT
Captured states relationship to fossil fuel industry
How the Queensland Government fracked the state
Gas Leaks … documentary by Four Corners, ABC Australia
The history of fracking – its a new technology George Mitchell
Meet the Frackers: Qld Gasfields Land & Water Commission
