“While the company acknowledges this will be a difficult time for employees, it is committed to supporting them through this transition,” an Arrow spokesperson told ILN sister publication EnergyNewsPremium.net.

“The company remains focused on finding additional value and reducing overall costs.

“Arrow will continue to assess development options, including collaboration opportunities, as it looks to develop significant gas reserves.”

Last week The Australian revealed that Arrow, which is jointly owned by Shell and Petrochina, was going to make job cuts as its LNG project and associated CSG exploration fell further behind the other three Curtis Island-based projects – Santos-led Gladstone LNG, Origin Energy-operated Australia Pacific LNG and BG-led Queensland Curtis LNG.

Yesterday the newspaper reported that about 250 jobs were axed from Arrow’s CSG to LNG project, while the Courier-Mail reported up to 400 redundancies out of the total workforce of 1200 could occur.

At the time of the long-awaited federal environmental approval for the $A20 billion-plus Arrow LNG project last month, the project’s associated Surat gas and Arrow Bowen pipeline plans remained under federal assessment.

A supplementary report was also being prepared to the environmental impact statement for the project’s proposed Arrow Bowen pipeline.

First stage LNG plant construction was targeting 4 million tonnes per annum in 2017 and 8Mtpa in 2018 through the completion of a second train.

The project envisioned expansion potential to 18Mtpa with third and fourth trains considered more likely about five years after stage 1 development.

Going by the spokesperson’s comments, Arrow is likely to approach the GLNG, APLNG and QCLNG joint ventures over possible collaboration opportunities.