Detailed in its application to meet the requirements of the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act, the area covers about 123,500 hectares in the Walloons Fairway roughly 20km west of Wandoan.

Aside from the 400 wells and associated infrastructure, QGC is seeking approval to build up to three field compression stations, in-field water storage infrastructure, trunklines for gas and water transportation and supporting developments such as access roads, electrical supply and communications infrastructure, lay-down areas, borrow pits and temporary camps.

Gas and water from the wells will be piped to the existing but not yet fully operational Woleebee Creek facilities before the gas is hooked into the LNG project’s pipelines for liquefaction on Curtis Island.

Pending approvals, QGC aims to start construction work for this area of the Surat Basin in late 2014 with gas production expected from it by the end of 2015.

The $US20.4 billion LNG project is targeting 8.5 million tonnes per annum of capacity with first production in 2014.

QGC is a subsidiary of BG Group and owns about 74% of the project’s total upstream resources since it farmed in China National Offshore Oil Corporation in May.

Around this time BG chief executive Chris Finlayson revealed that a third train expansion for QCLNG was at least four years away from possibly being sanctioned.

The licences involved in the area are ATP852, PL401, PL464, PL467 and the Pleiades block of ATP768.