Queensland Coordinator-General Colin Jensen has completed his review of the project’s environmental impact statement and approved it with strict conditions, which include the establishment of an Integrated Project Housing Strategy to provide additional affordable housing in the Gladstone area and measures to ensure as many local and Queensland suppliers are involved in the delivery of the project as possible.

QGC is still to obtain environmental approval from the Federal Government as well as many other key environmental, production licences and safety approvals required under various state laws and as conditioned by Mr Jensen before construction can start.

Ms Bligh said that if all the necessary approvals are granted and the company confirms its final investment decision later this year, the project could be shipping supplies as early as 2014.

“The project is expected to generate more than $6 billion a year in exports, employ up to 8,000 people during construction and 820 people during its operation,” Ms Bligh said.

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Coordinator-General Colin Jensen said “All LNG proponents will have to work together to optimise the pipeline route from Gladstone to Curtis Island to minimise environmental effects."

Mr Jensen also said that QGC will have to meet legal obligations to ensure landholders’ groundwater bores are not negatively impacted by water extraction that takes place in the coal seam gas drilling process.

Approval conditions will also see the establishment of Regional Community Consultative Committees in Gladstone and the gas fields to keep residents informed of the project’s progress and to address any concerns they may have.

The QCLNG project is the second on Curtis Island to have been declared under the State Development and Public Works Organisation Act, following the approval of Santos’ GLNG Project.