The first LNG production on Curtis Island has started on schedule, Santos says.

“LNG is currently being produced from Train 1 ahead of the first cargo, which is expected to be shipped to Asian markets in the coming weeks,” the energy giant said in a statement.

Santos CEO David Knox says it is a significant milestone.

“We said we’d produce first LNG around the end of the third quarter, and that’s exactly what we’ve done,” Knox said.

“Our upstream facilities are fully operational and performing well, we’re producing LNG on Curtis Island, and we’re now looking forward to safely delivering our first LNG cargo in the coming weeks.”

The GLNG project is used to convert coal seam gas from fields in the Surat and Bowen Basins into LNG.

Raw gas is transported along a 420 kilometre long transmission pipeline, to the two-train LNG plant on Curtis Island.

When it is fully-operational, Curtis is expected to produce 7.8 million tonnes of LNG per year.

Work on Train 2 is expected to be completed by the end of the year.