A spokesman for the company confirmed the tanker was waiting offshore Gladstone, ready to start shipping gas for the $20.4 billion project.

He also confirmed the project was ready for first shipments by the end of this year.

The first stage of the QCLNG project is expected to have a combined processing capacity of 8.5 million tonnes of LNG per annum.

QCLNG is set to be the first of three projects on Curtis Island in Queensland to convert coalbed methane to LNG to be sold off to Asian buyers.