"It was always logical that the company would look for a new CEO once this phase of heavy investment was behind us. That's always been a logical timeframe, and effectively that's what's happened," he told Energy News as the Petronas-owned Seri Bakti set sail to deliver GLNG's first cargo to South Korea last Friday.

"I'm just about into my seventh year, and that's a pretty good innings."

It will give the new CEO 2-3 years to see GLNG fully ramp up and debottleneck.

Santos chairman Peter Coates also told Energy News on Friday that while the pair have "always talked about timing", Knox's main interest was delivering GLNG.

"He has unrelentingly driven this project forward and he will deliver it, and he's not allowed to go until he does deliver it," Coates said.

He credited Knox for his vision and guidance to deliver the project, particularly his "… determination to deliver - and he made the right calls at the right times to get the right people into the delivery process".

Gladstone LNG has basically been Knox's baby ever since he joined the company in 2007 as its executive vice president of growth because of his "intimate knowledge of the Asia Pacific oil and gas landscape".

He was made CEO in July 2008.

Commercialising the company's vast CSG permits across Queensland's Surat and Bowen basins by getting the gas to Asian buyers was seen as a logical way to transform the company from a predominantly domestic gas supplier into a global gas player.

As Coates drives Santos' strategic review, which includes asset sales - though the chairman would not rule out selling the company - Knox said "the obvious key point is that in a low oil price world right now, cash is king, and it's really important that we get the business into a position where we're cash flow positive in a $US50/bbl world at 70c [exchange rate to the US dollar] - and that's where we're driving towards".

He said GLNG, PNG LNG, Darwin LNG and Santos' Western Australian assets all work in that environment.

"Next year, all the way down to current oil prices, we're going to be throwing off cash on which we can use the lower debt," Knox said. "What Peter is working on with the strategic review is to increase the rate at which that debt will come down."

Departure timing

While Knox' exit is within reach, he was reluctant to start reflecting on successes and failures - though of course happy to talk up the big story of the day, GLNG's first cargo - because, as Coates said, his job was not yet complete.

The overwhelming feeling at the moment, he said, was one of "great pride" that a company Santos' size has managed to do it - "and do it with real style, because this is the territory of the big boys, and mega-companies".

It was also about proving the doubters wrong, considering the likes of Gorgon and Ichthys LNG projects run by far bigger companies have run months over schedule and over budget.

"I'm also very pleased that we demonstrated that it can be done in Australia," he said.

"A lot of people are saying that you can't do major projects here in Australia, and do them on budget and on schedule, and we've done it.

"This is the first train we're starting up, we now have the second train to start up, so we're not actually done yet. We'll need somewhere between 6-9 months in order to bring that second train online.

"First train will run absolutely full and beyond from the get-go. We've always said we'll ramp that up over 2-3 years, but the reality of the situation is we'll probably do it a bit faster than that, but I'm not going to change my guidance on that at this stage. We'll just work hard to do it quicker.

"The nature of CSG is you need to de-water the fields first. The second train will largely be supplied from the Roma field, which is a very young field that is currently de-watering. The Fairview field that's supplying the first train is fully de-watered."

GLNG profitability

When asked whether GLNG was a good investment in the current oil price environment, Knox noted that the cargo sitting on the boat behind him at last Friday's launch, was worth $A40 million in today's prices.

"If oil prices lift, that cargo is going to be worth more. So the real question determining whether this project is profitable is what's going to be the long-term oil price?" he said.

"I would argue that in an energy-short world where oil is a commodity is scarce and increasingly hard to find, in the long-term we are going to have strong oil prices, and as they lift so will the revenue from this project, so will the taxes that both the Queensland and federal government be able to gain from this project.

"We've really created a wealth creating machine that runs for 40 years."