Speaking at the SEAAOC conference in Darwin today, Inpex general manager Sean Kildare said the company was working on a draft of the EIS and should release a copy for public comment before Christmas.

Kildare also said the partners had made good progress in moving towards a final investment decision for the 8 million tonne per annum project, targeted for 2010.

He went on to say the project would generate substantial returns for the Australian economy and create about 2000 jobs during construction.

The Ichthys LNG project includes plans for what could be the world's largest floating processing platform, which would be capable of stripping out 100,000 barrels of condensate per day, as well as a subsea pipeline of up to 930 kilometres in length to the onshore LNG plant at Blaydin Point in Darwin.

Ichthys will have an initial output of 8 million tonnes per annum of LNG from two trains. It will also produce about 1.6MMtpa of liquefied petroleum gas.

First shipment of LNG is scheduled to be loaded in 2015.