The arrival of the first gas into the LNG facility also marks the completion of commissioning of the 530km high pressure gas pipeline, another important milestone for the project.

The announcement follows BG Group’s on January 5 that the first LNG tanker departed from Gladstone that day from its Queensland Curtis LNG project, marking the start of Australia’s transformation to being the world’s largest LNG supplier.

For Origin and ConocoPhillips, the completion of the pipeline and the arrival of the gas means APLNG can initiate the commissioning of the power generation facilities on the island.

The commissioning phase of the LNG facility also includes the verification and testing of each system of the first processing train and the two LNG tanks, part of which has already started.

APLNG CEO Page Maxson said the JV’s achievement of two major milestones – first gas to Curtis Island and completion of commissioning of the pipeline – demonstrated continued strong progress by the project and paves the way for the commissioning of the power generation facilities on the island.

“These milestones have been achieved thanks to the incredible effort by the many people committed to safely delivering the Australia Pacific LNG project,” he said.

“Australia Pacific LNG looks forward to completing the final phase of construction and delivering first LNG in mid-2015.”

APLNG’s upstream operator Origin revealed earlier this month that APLNG was 88% complete, with 1019 development wells drilled and 666 wells commissioned, while the downstream component is 86% complete and the final Train 2 module has been set on its permanent foundations.

Origin CEO LNG David Baldwin said APLNG was on track for first LNG in mid-2015.

QCLNG was Australia’s fourth operating LNG project. Another six projects – representing a total investment of more than $180 billion – are still under development.

By 2018, Australia is forecast to overtake Qatar as the world’s top producer of LNG. When the three major LNG export projects are completed and fully operational, which is expected to occur by 2017, the Port of Gladstone will have a production capacity of 25.3 million tonnes of LNG a year.