Under the Braemar contract, QGC (90%) and partner Sentinent (10%) have committed to long-term gas sales of 2 petajoules per annum from October 1 and a further 2 PJ per annum from December 1.

But QGC estimates that from next week, the joint venture will be selling gas to CS Energy at a rate of 11 terajoules per day, with close to 6.5 TJpd going to Braemar.

“At this rate, the gas delivery to Braemar will be nearly 20% above the rate required on the commencement of the contract by October 1, 2006 or 60% of the contract volumes required by December 2006,” QGC said this morning.

“QGC anticipates producing and selling gas next week at an overall rate of 17.5 TJ per day. This equates to 6.41 PJ per annum.”

As a result of the increased production, QGC anticipates that its gas sales will be 15% higher for the quarter than forecast on May 8.