The Chevron-operated Wheatstone liquefied natural gas (LNG) project will officially go ahead.
The project was given the federal environmental approval last week and the outcome of a final investment decision (FID) of $29 billion by Chevron was really little more than a formality.
Wheatstone is a joint venture project with Chevron 73.6 per cent, Apache 13 per cent, Kuwait Foreign Petroleum Co (KUFPEC) 7 per cent, Shell Australia 6.4 per cent.
The Wheatstone gas field is about 250 kilometres off the coast of Onslow, north-west Western Australia.
Gas from the field will be pumped via subsea pipelines to the onshore processing facility just north of the town of Onslow.
The project has come on stream in record time, from discovery in 2004 to first gas production by 2016.
Up to 3,500 jobs and 3,000 indirect jobs will be created during the construction phase of approximately six years.
A permanent workforce of 300 will operate the rigs and plant.
WA Premier Colin Barnett says Wheatstone will confirm WA as the world's second-largest supplier of LNG behind Quatar, and CEO of Shell, Ann Pickard, went one step further.
She says Australia will soon strip the title of leading producer from Qatar, in the Middle-East, within the decade.
Federal Government counting the royalties before they flow
The Federal Resources Minister, Martin Ferguson, says the revenue stream from the Wheatstone project is estimated at $20 billion over the 20-year life of the project.
And he welcomes the commitment by the company to spend $17 billion on Australian goods and services over the lift of the project. "The investment of just under $30 billion means that we now have $140 billion committed in Australia to new LNG investments" he says.
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