Aussie oil and gas outfit Santos has started the approval ball rolling by submitting an estimate of its envrironmental footprint and plans for its multi-billion dollar Gladstone LNG coal-liquefied-natural-gas project, the first major project of its kind in the world.

The document is an exhaustive 13,500 pages of general and technical information.

“The Statement represents almost 18 months of environmental investigations and reports across 24,000 square kilometres from Roma in the State’s south east, to Curtis Island, off Gladstone in Central Queensland,” a statement said, adding that 50 people help draw up the assessment.

More than 140 project briefings with stakeholders and formal responses to more than 250 phone, fax and email inquiries were fielded, the company said.

Gas will be piped from fields near Roma via a 435 kilometre pipeline to Curtis Island, where it will be cooled to minus 161 degrees Celsius in a liquefaction plant and shipped to global markets.

PETRONAS, Malaysia’s national oil company and Asia’s largest LNG producer, took a 40 percent interest in Gladstone for US$2.5 billion in May 2008.

Tags: Gladstone LNG, Santos