The commissioning and start-up of the plant was completed in September, and gas production has steadily increased since then.

Production and export of condensate and liquefied petroleum gas is also due to commence shortly.

The project is located off Victoria’s west coast and centres on two gas fields – the Thylacine and Geographe fields, located 70 km and 50 km offshore respectively.

Construction, which began in October 2004, involved a remotely operated platform at the Thylacine field, offshore and onshore pipelines, and a new gas plant near the Iona gas plant, 6 km north of Port Campbell.

Gas is extracted using the platform and brought to shore via the main offshore pipeline to the gas processing plant. The main pipeline to shore extends from the Thylacine field.

Over the life of the plant, the Thylacine and Geographe fields are expected to produce 950 Bcf of raw gas (equivalent to 885 PJ of natural gas), 12.2 million barrels of condensate and 1.7 million tonnes of liquid petroleum gas.

The $1.1 billion development of the fields is estimated to provide more than 10 per cent of current annual demand in south-eastern Australia over the next ten years.

Initial production rates are estimated to be approximately 60 PJ of sales gas a year, all from the Thylacine field initially. The Geographe field will be connected to the main offshore pipeline before the end of the decade.

The Thylacine-1 and Geographe-1 wells were discovered in May and June 2001 respectively. The discoveries were followed with a successful appraisal well, Thylacine-2, in August 2001.

Woodside has sold its share of gas to TRUeneregy, based on delivering about 30 PJ a year for more than 10 years. Condensate from the project will go to Shell's Geelong refinery, while liquefied petroleum gas is expected to be sold to distributors operating in Victoria.

The Final Investment Decision to go ahead with the project came in May 2004, at which time five major contract packages were awarded:

- DrillTec Australia were awarded the pipeline shore crossing horizontal directional drilling package; - Technip Oceania were awarded the engineering, procurement, installation and construction of the offshore platform; - The engineering, procurement, installation and construction of the onshore gas processing plant and 11.5 km onshore pipeline was also awarded to Technip Oceania; - Allseas Marine Contractors SA were awarded the 70 km offshore pipe-lay using the Lorelay, and the subsea tie-in contract; and, - Maersk Contractors were awarded the drilling contract with one appraisal/exploration well and at least four production wells using the jack-up drilling rig, Maersk Guardian. The Drill Rig was utilised to assist with the installation of the offshore platform. Woodside's drilling team was responsible for managing the drilling contract in association with Maersk Contractors.

Joint venture participants in the project are Woodside (51.55 per cent), Origin Energy Resources (30.75 per cent), Benaris International (12.7 per cent) and CalEnergy Gas Australia (5 per cent).