The agreement is still conditional on the completion of a mutually acceptable sale and purchase agreement and finalisation of operational arrangements between the parties.

Earlier in September BHP Billiton selected Onslow as the preferred site for a new Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) plant in Western Australia, despite reservations from 50% partner ExxonMobil about the project's commercial viability.

A site, about 4.5km southwest of Onslow was chosen after an extensive Site Selection Study examined a number of locations in the Pilbara as part of the company's exclusive pre-feasibility study into the development of the Scarborough gas resource, located about 280km northwest of Onslow.

Scarborough’s location means that around $5 billion will be required to link a pipeline to shore, although the pre-feasibility study is examining a number of concepts for the field development that would connect to a single train with capacity of approximately six million tonnes per annum.

It is not known yet what plans the company has for the Tubridgi field and whether it is to be tied into any future Scarborough project.

The Tubridgi complex has two connecting pipelines to the Dampier to Bunbury Natural Gas pipeline, a shore crossing pipeline from BHPB’s Gryphon project and plenty of room to build an LNG plant without constraint, in addition to the Tubridgi gas plant itself and the near depleted Tubridgi gas field.