This development (in which the original five partners have been joined by the Japanese trading houses Mitsubishi and Mitsui) involves the building of a three-train LNG Plant, LNG storage tanks and LNG product loading jetty on the Burrup Peninsula, two additional offshore production facilities, interconnecting pipelines and supporting infrastructure and a fleet of seven LNG carriers.

By the mid-1990s LNG sales to Japan are expected to be rivalling wool, wheat, coal and iron ore as Australia's biggest export revenue earner. The North West Shelf Project has taxed skills right across the board to the utmost -as did the 'Snowy' before it -and the challenges will continue on into the next century. Truly a worthy successor as the greatest engineering and construction achievement in Australia since that pioneering hydro-electric scheme, the Snowy Mountains Scheme.

Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering