According to Austeel chairman Clive Palmer, the project will likely require some 315 terajoules of gas per day for 20 years. This preliminary pact, if consummated, will be the state's largest gas supply agreement since North-West Shelf Gas signed its debut sales agreement with the then-State Energy Commission of Western Australia in 1980. North-West Shelf Gas and Austeel both aim to sign a formal contract by year-end with first gas for the project expected to flow in 2003.