Deputy Premier Jeff Seeney said the two proponents had both been shortlisted for the potential staged expansion, which was designed at the outset to encourage incremental terminal expansion and development over time.

“The Port of Abbot Point is a strategic state asset and any expansion needs to be managed carefully,” he said.

“It was clear the industry was not supportive of the multi-cargo facility put forward by the previous Labor government.

“Any future plans for the port at Abbot Point will need to take into consideration the short and long-term needs of industry.

“In the coming weeks, the government will enter into negotiations with these two groups around preferred proponent agreements and we intend to work with each group to assist them in preparing terminal development proposals.”

Seeney said the government anticipated there might be a need to further expand coal export capacity at Abbot Point as coal mining projects emerged, particularly in the Galilee Basin.

“Further demand for terminal development may be considered beyond 2013 and once the capacity of current proposals was further understood,” he said.

“The government wants to ensure ‘open access’ arrangements are available to companies which are not able to fund terminal developments themselves and wish to access terminal capacity on commercial terms in the future.

“The government will facilitate the dialogue necessary for these companies to have the opportunity to negotiate suitable commercial arrangements with the preferred proponents.”

Seeney said respondents to the AP-X registration of interest process would be able to seek feedback on their submissions from the project team.