"With the required approval now granted, we can continue with our plan to start construction in January 2003 and bring new gas to Victoria by the third quarter of 2004," said Origin's executive general manager of oil & gas production, John Piper.

The BassGas project involves developing the Yolla gas field, about 147km off the coast of Victoria, which is said to contain 256 petajoules of sales gas, 1 million tonnes of liquid petroleum gas and 14 million barrels of condensate.

Participants in the joint venture include Origin Energy (operator) 37.5%, Australia Worldwide Exploration 30%, CalEnergy 20% and Mitsui subsidiary, Wandoo Petroleum 12.5%.