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Australian Energy Producers Journal Australian Energy Producers Journal Society
Journal of Australian Energy Producers
RESEARCH ARTICLE (Non peer reviewed)

Tiny trains – new hope? Or the same issues in a smaller box?

Andy Aston A *
+ Author Affiliations
- Author Affiliations

A Turner & Townsend, London, UK.

* Correspondence to: andy.aston@turntown.com

The APPEA Journal 63 S142-S145 https://doi.org/10.1071/AJ22234
Accepted: 15 March 2023   Published: 11 May 2023

© 2023 The Author(s) (or their employer(s)). Published by CSIRO Publishing on behalf of APPEA.

Abstract

The report card from Australia’s decade-long liquefied natural gas (LNG) construction boom makes for sobering reading. From 2009 to 2019, there were 15 new trains turned on, which lifted LNG production to a record 77 million tonnes in 2019. They are clearly big plants, with big production trains and with big capital expenditure to match. But the plants seemed to come with big problems. Not just in construction, but sometimes in production too. Now times have changed. Advances in technology, together with new market dynamics, have sparked new interest in small trains. A number of projects in the USA are now being proposed with multiple smaller units rather than the big trains that have dominated the last decade. For Australian owners and operators a new questions emerges. Do these ‘tiny trains’ represent a new step on the journey to a more efficient and effective commercialisation of region gas? Or will the new trains deliver the same issues, just in a smaller box? This paper provides: lessons learned from the Australian LNG boom between 2009 and 2019, an overview of the new ‘small train’ technologies including real world examples, a discussion of the risks and benefits of this approach, a case study from US owners/operators and discussion of where this approach might suit the needs of Australian LNG. The paper will appeal to oil and gas producers, major contractors and service providers.

Keywords: Australian LNG, decarbonisation, Liquefied Natural Gas, LNG, LNG investment, LNG technology, LNG trains.

Andy Aston is the Global Managing Director of Turner & Townsend’s Natural Resources business. He is a capital projects professional with over 20 years’ project and contract services experience. Andy has worked for major oil and gas operators on upstream, midstream and downstream projects both pre and post sanction and has been involved in the Australian LNG industry since 2006. He specialises in contract strategy development, partnership and alliance contracting, contract management and business process development.


References

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