Brisbane 10 September 2013. Queensland Coordinator-General Barry Broe has approved Arrow CSG (Australia) Pty Ltd’s $15 billion Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) plant at Gladstone.

The Coordinator-General released his evaluation report on the Environmental Impact Statement today.

Deputy Premier and Minister for State Development, Infrastructure and Planning Jeff Seeney said the decision was important in the progression of the massive project, which would provide a much needed boost to the state’s economy.

“While Arrow still has some work to do, with financial close and CSG supply components to be finalised, it certainly reinforces Curtis Island and Gladstone as the Pacific LNG hub,” Mr Seeney said.

“Should Arrow proceed, it will be the fourth LNG plant on Curtis Island with a peak workforce of about 3500 construction jobs and about 450 operational jobs for Stage One, increasing to 600 on the completion of Stage Two.

Mr Seeney said Arrow proposed a facility that would produce up to 18 million tonnes of LNG a year through a staged development.

“The three LNG plants currently under construction on Curtis Island provided thousands of jobs during the construction phase and will provide substantial income to the state through royalties,” he said.

“There are more than 7,600 tradespeople out of a total of 10,148 people working on the Curtis Island projects.”

Mr Seeney said the Coordinator-General’s assessment also covered the pipeline tunnel from the mainland to Curtis Island and marine logistics facilities on Curtis Island and the mainland.

He said that since the declaration as a coordinated project in June 2009 as the Shell Australia LNG project, Arrow had undertaken a comprehensive set of marine and land studies which had been thoroughly and professionally assessed by state and local government advisory agencies.

“Key issues as part of the Coordinator-General’s evaluation include management of hazardous operations, project transport, including transportation of workers to Curtis Island, impacts on coastal water quality and marine flora and fauna,” he said.

“The Coordinator-General also considered potential social impacts relating to increased costs for housing and demand for existing social services and has set a comprehensive range of strict construction and operating conditions on the project.”

Mr Seeney said it would now be up to the Federal Government to consider potential impacts to the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area and other matters of national environmental significance and make its decision within the statutory 30 business days.