BHP vice president gas commercialisation Neil Croker told the Gas Australia Pacific conference in Perth the site, with initial plans for a single, six million tonne per year (mtpa) train, could eventually host up to four processing trains and act as a hub for some of the undeveloped fields in the region.

The North West Shelf will have a capacity of around 14mtpa if and when a planned fifth train is completed. If BHPB rolls out four trains at six mtpa, it will have a nameplate capacity of 24 mtpa.

The Scarborough field is 270 kilometres off the coast with an estimated eight trillion cubic feet (tcf) of gas. It would be competing in international markets against the Gorgon proposal which has in excess of 40tcf of estimated reserves.

BHPB last month selected Onslow as the preferred onshore site for a processing facility, which would target the US gas markets.

However, a not insignificant hurdle for BHPB to cross before Scarborough is developed is the apparent disinterest from equal partner ExxonMobil, which has equity in the gas reserves but not in the LNG proposal.