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Queensland has a large coal, mineral and gas resource base with a modest scale chemical industry focussed on the local resource development sector.
The chemical industry is represented by the manufacture of:
See notes on nickel and cobalt.
State gas usage is about 45 petajoules per year with the bulk for industrial
use. Demand however is anticipated to treble to 130 petajoules by year
2000.
In the north of Queensland, about 13 petajoules is used at Gladstone
(principally for Queensland Alumina Limited) and in the south about 14
petajoules is used near Brisbane (principally for Astral Pacific [Incitec]
for the manufacture of nitrogen fertiliser).
Exxon has joined (April '99) a consortium with Chevron to bring gas
from Papua New Guinea by a 1200 km pipeline to Townsville Queensland. It
it will require a baseload helped by an alumina
refinery to be operated by Comalco at Gladstone initially requiring 27
petajoules p.a. growing to 80 petajoules by stage 3. A joint venture between
Stanwell Corp Ltd and Destec Energy Inc has been selected as preferred
bidder for a 750 megawatt power station at Pinnacles, near Townsville. The proposed pipeline (to be constructed by Australian Gas Light and Petronas
of Malaysia) was originally
planned to move the natural gas from Chevron's Kutuba onshore field in
the Southern Highlands, but Exxon and Oil Search have since agreed to sell
their gas in the closer Hides gas field (an entrepreneurial coup for Chevron!).
The gas will be transported from Papua New Guinea across Torres Strait
and down Cape York Peninsula to Townsville and on to the industrial city
of Gladstone. LPG will be stripped in PNG for sale in PNG and Australia.
In February 1999, Santos announced it was taking a 25 per cent interest
in Hides which has an estimated 5 trillion cubic feet of gas that could
become a LNG export centre.
The project is anticipated to cost US$3.5 billion Potential customers for the PNG gas include aluminum group Comalco Ltd
(27pj), nickel producer QNI Ltd (25pj), Orica subsidiary Incitec
Ltd , powerstation (40pj) and Australian Magnesium Corp, a joint venture
of Queensland Metals Corp NL and Normandy Mining Ltd.Comalco
is important to the project and could be crowded out by expansions in alumina
production in Western Australia and competition from Malaysia. The
Federal government (Invest Australia and now Austrade) had offered $100m of incentives and the
Queensland government $250 million (to represent a 25 per cent capital cost subsidy). Comalco has indicated Sarawak as an alternative location. See also
alumina.
The pipeline would have a minimum capacity of 300 million cubic feet
a day (330 terajoules/day), with the proponents optimistic that capacity
could grow over time to about 600 million cubic feet (660 terajoules/day).
The pipeline needs a minimum baseload of 120 petajoules to be viable. Some
12 trillion cubic feet of gas is currently available in PNG (about one-half
required to sustain the project for 30 years.
Some have identified a political risk of bringing gas between countries.
In Jan 2000, landholders halted production of oil in the Moran oilfield which
forms part of the Hides, Kutubu, Gobe and Moran field that were aggregated to
produce for 30 years. Also seen as a measure of
foreign aid to PNG.
In July 1999, the pipeline sponsors signed binding sales contracts;
Allgas, a subsidiary of Queensland government-owned Energex, has contracted
to buy 130 petajoules of gas over 20 years, of which 20 petajoules reflect
an allocation to Comalco’s proposed Gladstone alumina project. In May 2001,
Woodside Energy and Shell Australia announced agreement to supply the
Townsville Nickel Refinery 12.5 petajoules (19 petajoules subject to the
Ravensthorpe nickel project over 20
years. The gas would be supplied from Greater Sunrise in the Timor sea and
hence reduce the baseload for the PNG gas venture. PNG gas project is believed
now to be targeted for 2005. July 2001, concerns about political
unrest in PNG identified as weakening the prospects.
Coal seam gas
Like its southern neighbour, New
South Wales, Queensland has massive coal seam methane reserves in the
Bowen Basin with more than 13 000 petajoules (out of 150 000 petajoules)
of methane described as potentially recoverable. Transfield Pty Ltd said
that it could deliver the 27 pj/year of energy that Comalco's potential
$1 billion alumina refinery at Gladstone Qld would need for 20 years, from
coal bed methane sources in central Queensland; Comalco is assessing the
bid even though it thinks that gas from PNG would be more viable.(April
'99) In February 1999, Queensland Fertilizer Assets Limited announced a feasibility
study for an ammonia plant at Pickanjinnie, some 34 km east of Roma based
on coal bed methane supplied by Transfield/TriStar pipeline. The evaluation
is for 1000 tonne per day of ammonia, 400 tonne per day of nitric acid,
1000 tonne per day of granular urea and 500 tonne per day of low density
ammonium nitrate. To cost A$575m, it could be in production by year 2001
based on commencement of construction by July 1999.
The state has extensive deposits of shale oil (in the 40 million year old
deposits) which is a form of fossilised algae called kerogen that under pressure
and elevated temperatures has formed into hydrocarbons. The oil shale has
to be heated to release the hydrocarbons as a vapour which when cooled becomes
liquid oil and gas (hence similar to natural oil deposits). The shale would be
open cut mined and refilled after extraction. Shale can be treated in a Alberta Taciuk Processor which is a large rotating
kiln which heats the shale to 500°C. The "Rundle Twins"
comprising Southern Pacific Petroleum and sister company, Central Pacific
Minerals, have a pilot project exploiting the Stuart Shale Oil deposit containing potentially
24 billion barrels of oil in Queensland (82 billion around Australia). It is
located at Gladstone on the Stuart oil deposits. Stage 1 has produced 100 000 bbls of oil (refined in Singapore) by July 2001. Stage 2 construction is planned
for mid 2003 with full production by end 2005. The company has received
an excise exemption valued at A$36million for $A54.68 per barrel of product to a
maximum of 600 000 barrels over one year. This is in addition to A$20 million
received from state and federal
government assistance. In July 2002, it was reported it was seeking A$127
million in assistance from the federal government. Some assessments suggest
it could produce 1 million barrels of oil per day with a cumulative production
value of A$1 trillion. The company has experienced difficulty (a
"marketing problem") in selling its naphtha and oil products on the
Australian market in large part due to the adverse publicity promoted by Greenpeace.
Greenpeace has targeted buyers (eg. Caltex) as being irresponsible in claiming
to be environmentally responsible and in response (Australian 17 May 2002, page
30) Caltex declared it has only made one purchase and with no plans to buy more
(there is also only a limited price advantage). Accordingly sales have
been exported and warehoused (185 000 bbls worth $14m). In July 2002,
it was announced that Mobil Oil Australia was the first long term customer to
buy naphtha with a contract of 2 million barrels through to 2005. Low sulfur
naphtha reached a production of 50 000 bbls per month in early 2003. Greenpeace has expressed concern about
the project as it has the potential to add 9 million tonnes of carbon dioxide to
Australia's annual emissions. Also plans in Western Australia for Syntroleum
gas to oil project.
Trade profile for chemicals (ex TradeData)sodium cyanide at two plants by Ticor and Orica
at Gladstone:
ammonia, ammonium nitrate and urea by Incitec
at Brisbane:
urea formaldehyde adhesive by Borden at Murarne.
ammonium nitrate at Gladstone
(using ammonia freighted from Incitec).
alumina.
ammonium nitrate plant at
Moura
chlorine by Elite Chemicals (a subsidiary
of Ionics Inc of the US) at Brisbane (since 1986) producing 7000 tonnes
of chlorine using ionic membrane cell. For sodium hypochlorite and 33 per
cent hydrochloric acid.
ammonium phosphates fertilisers
shale oil
Magnesium (mothballed June
2003)
Ammonium phosphates fertiliser
From 1999, WMC has operated an ammonium phosphate
fertiliser plant near Mt Isa using sulfuric acid produced by MIM. Natural
gas will be brought by pipeline from the south west of the state. It represents
the largest chemical operation in Australia for the past decade.
Magnesite/magnesium
Commercial Minerals with with Queensland Metals Corporation Limited
(QMC) has mining and exploration licenses covering 1.2 billion tonnes of
magnesite ore from the Kunwarara deposit, 60 km north-west of Rockhampton.
QMC owns 60% of QMAG which produces high grade refractory magnesia and
other magnesia products at Parkhurst in Rockhampton. It operates three
electrofusion furnaces to produce 15 000 tonnes of magnesia while some
100 000 tonnes of dead burned magnesia is exported.
More details on magnesium
Nickel refining
Ammonia
Orica has expressed interest in establishing an ammonia plant at Yarwun
(Gladstone) to replace shipped ammonia required for its ammonium nitrate
and sodium cyanide plants. This project would be tested with the proposed
Moura gas-based ammonium
nitrate plant proposed by Dyno Nobel and Wesfarmers. It would have
taken 11 petajoules of gas that helps the economics of the proposed PNG
gas line. It is now unlikely in the immediate future.
Gas
Queensland has gas reserves located in the Surat, Bowen, Adavale and Cooper
Basins in the south-west of the state with total reserves estimated at
2 200 petajoules. The gas is brought by pipeline from the Cooper Basin
in the far south west of Queensland to the population centre of Brisbane
with a spur from the Roma fields to Gladstone and Rockhampton. A total
of 300 petajoules of Cooper Basin gas will be supplied over 10 years to
the Moomba gasfield for distribution to South
Australia. A line has been constracted from the Cooper Basin to Mount
Isa including Phosphate Hill where WMC manufactures ammonium
phosphate fertiliser.
PNG GAS
Shale deposits
See also national chemical
industry
and trade performance.
A
state by state comparison (five digit resolution available on request).
Western
Australia
South
Australia
New
South Wales
Queensland
Click on name of State or region for details. Under development.
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