QGC Pty Limited has spent more than A$5.1 billion in the past 18 months on the Queensland Curtis LNG Project and its domestic gas business with more than 72% of it spent in Australia.
More than 4300 people are also now working for QGC and the Queensland Curtis LNG Project which involves an investment of more than A$15 billion.
Of the total work force, 1466 staff and contractors work directly for QGC while 2880 are engaged by contractors on the QCLNG Project.
The figures are outlined in QGC’s six-monthly report to the Queensland Coordinator-General on Australian industry participation in the QCLNG Project for the period to 30 September 2011.
The report also marks the QCLNG Project’s first year of construction.
The work force numbers include 310 indigenous staff and contractors and nearly 100 graduates, trainees and apprentices.
QGC Senior Vice President Jim Knudsen said QGC had spent A$3.7 billion with Australian firms for goods and services, and nearly A$1 billion on local infrastructure such as roads and airports.
“ While nearly A$3 billion has been spent across Queensland, the Western Downs region between Toowoomba and Roma has been the largest recipient of spending with more than A$230 million, followed by the Banana-Gladstone-Rockhampton region with more than A$191 million ,” Mr Knudsen said.
The QCLNG Project involves developing fields in the Surat Basin and transporting gas in a 540km underground pipeline network to Gladstone where it will be liquefied for export.
The QCLNG Project has nearly 300 vacancies in professions and trades covering geology, drilling, engineering, construction, project management, electrical and instrumentation, deckhands, operators, fitters, side-boom operators, and administration.
QGC and its contractors had let nearly 1000 contracts across the QCLNG Project and more than 13,600 registrations of interest had been received from regional, Queensland and Australian firms to provide goods and services.
1 Australian dollar = 1.0208 U.S. dollars
[mappress] LNG World News Staff, December 5, 2011; Image: QGC