Development of the Kipper gas field off the Victorian coast means tapping one of the largest untapped reserves in the region. It could produce enough gas to supply 1 million homes for 15 years.

The project is a joint venture between Melbourne-based BHP Billiton, Santos and Esso Australia Resources; construction is expected to begin next year. Gas is expected to start flowing from Kipper beginning in 2011.

The chairman of Esso's parent company Exxon Mobil (NYSE:XOM), Mark Nolan, said the field contained an estimated 620 billion cubic feet of recoverable gas. The gas will be piped from Esso's Longford plant to Tasmania, New South Wales and South Australia.

"This gas market that we're supplying Kipper gas into is actually an interconnected market to the whole east coast of Australia where most of the population live," Nolan said. "This field has the equivalent capacity of producing about 20 percent of all the gas that we currently produce out of Gippsland; it's a very significant amount of gas."