The company has already received environmental approval to construct and operate both stages of the project and now the Federal Government has also granted it Major Project Facilitation status.

The granting of this status provides a co-ordinated and streamlined decision-making process to gain all necessary statutory approvals for the project.

The company also awarded several key contracts for the project to be, located 275km north of Darwin, just south of the Evans Shoal gas field.

Fluor Australia has been appointed as program manager, responsible for the construction and contracting strategies for the project.

The FEED studies will primarily involve Kvaerner E & C and Worley who have formed the Offshore Methanol Joint Venture to design the TSMP, primarily using.Davy Process Technology.

The Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation has also been appointed to provide project advisory services to the company and the project.

The aim is to create two large gas reforming and methanol production plants in the Australian waters of the Timor Sea, at a cost around $2 billion. It is planned that the plants could produce around 3.5 million tones of methanol each year, or 5000 tonnes per day.

The methanol production and utility equipment and storage facilities would be built on gravity based structures (GBS) and towed to the site to create an artificial island.

Interests in the Evans Shoal gas field which will supply the feedstock gas are Santos (40%), Shell Australia (50%) and Osaka Gas (10%).

During the quarter the company also continued to develop the Timor Sea LNG Project (TSLNGP), which is a proposed offshore LNG processing facility.