The project is estimated to need at least $300 million in commonwealth money to get going, but further costs to encourage industry and subsidies for users could take the federal share beyond $1 billion.
A taskforce from the Prime Minister's department was asked to advise the federal Government on possible involvement in developing the Sunrise gas field and helping to build a processing plant near Darwin to use the gas domestically and prepare it for export.
The taskforce investigated the interests of the Sunrise project's owners - Woodside, Shell, Phillips Petroleum and Osaka Gas - who are currently debating whether to develop the onshore plant or the world's first floating liquefied natural gas plant.
