Gorgon, the Australian liquefied natural gas project which has a globally significant resource base estimated at 40,000bn cubic feet of natural gas, was officially given the green light on Monday when Chevron said it would proceed with the A$43bn (US$37bn) development.
The milestone came nearly three decades after gas was discovered in the fields off the Western Australian coast and followed years of work to secure federal, state and environmental approvals in Australia.
Jim Blackwell, president of Chevron Asia Pacific Exploration and Production, said the first delivery of gas is expected to be shipped in 2014 from a processing facility that at its peak will supply 15m tonnes per annum of LNG.