BG Group has been loading the first cargo of LNG from its Queensland Curtis LNG (QCLNG) facility since Dec. 28, the company said in a Dec. 29 statement. The vessel being loaded is the Methane Rita Andrea. The next vessel to be loaded will be the Methane Mickie Harper, which will arrive in the Gladstone region of Queensland, Australia, in early January.

QCLNG is the first LNG project in the world to be supplied by coal seam gas. Production startup for the first LNG train at QCLNG required more than four years of development.

The project will expand in third-quarter 2015 when the second LNG train begins production. By 2016, when the plant is fully in service, QCLNG will have an output of around 8 million tonnes of LNG per year.