San Francisco, CA – Bechtel has successfully ‘hydro-tested’ two additional liquefied natural gas (LNG) storage tanks built on Curtis Island in Queensland, Australia.

The tests confirm that the tanks built for the Australia Pacific LNG and Santos GLNG plants are ready to store LNG and follow the successful test of a tank at the Queensland Curtis LNG project earlier this year. Bechtel is the engineering, procurement, and construction contractor for both projects.

Hydro testing takes between two and four weeks to complete. Water is pumped into each of the tanks and held for 24 hours while various tests are carried out.

Once testing is complete, it takes about five days to empty the tanks. Hydro-testing verifies that each tank can hold its design capacity of LNG at -260 degrees Fahrenheit.

Each of the QCLNG and GLNG tanks is capable of holding more than 140,000 cubic meters of LNG with Australia Pacific LNG’s tanks each holding 160,000 cubic meters.

In addition to the work on Curtis Island, Bechtel is the principal downstream contractor for the Chevron-operated Wheatstone Project in Western Australia.

Bechtel also constructed the LNG facility, in Darwin, in 2005 and is responsible for about half the LNG liquefaction capacity under construction.

International engineering giant Bechtel operates through five global business units that specialize in civil infrastructure; power generation, communications, and transmission; mining and metals; oil, gas, and chemicals; and government services.

Since its founding in 1898, Bechtel has worked on more than 25,000 projects in 160 countries on all seven continents. Currently, the company is involved in diverse projects in nearly 40 countries.

08/21/2014