VICTORIA’S Acting Premier and Minister for State Development Peter Ryan has welcomed ExxonMobil’s commencement of production from the Kipper Tuna Turrum (KTT) project in Bass Strait, which will help secure Victoria’s energy future.

Mr Ryan said the $4.5 billion project covering three oil and gas fields (Kipper, Tuna and Turrum) had already created 1,300 construction and installation jobs and involved approximately $2.8 billion in Australian content.

“The Kipper Tuna Turrum project is the largest domestic oil and gas development on the eastern seaboard,” Mr Ryan said.

“This project will provide enough energy to power a city of one million people for 35 years, boosting production from Bass Strait which has been producing oil and gas for more than 40 years.

“The gas will be for domestic consumption.”

Mr Ryan said that the first part of this project had come on stream, with ExxonMobil producing natural gas production from the Tuna field via two new pipelines, and that oil was also being produced from the Turrum field through the new Marlin B platform – the first new oil and gas platform installed in Bass Strait for over a decade.

“This project will benefit Victoria for many years, and by 2016, ExxonMobil also expect to be producing gas from the Turrum and Kipper fields, with gas to be processed at a new gas conditioning plant planned for Longford,” said Mr Ryan.

Mr Ryan said that the Victorian Coalition Government had worked with ExxonMobil, the Wellington Shire and the relevant government agencies regarding development approvals for the new Longford gas conditioning plant which would create significant new jobs in Gippsland once construction commenced.

“With these new resources coming on-stream Victoria will have additional supplies of natural gas, a clean burning low emission source of energy for electricity generation and for use by business, industry and households in Victoria,” Mr Ryan said.