Australian company Santos said Friday it installed the final pieces of a liquefied natural gas plant on Curtis Island, off the country's eastern coast.

"Once we're in full production, these massive pieces of infrastructure will together produce up to 7.8 million tons of liquefied natural gas each year," Santos Operations Manager Brenton Hawtin said in a statement.

Santos leads the $18.5 billion project designed to convert coal seam natural gas to LNG for exports to the global market.

Hawtin said the company has started testing gas deliveries through the facilities pipeline system and completed its first processing hub for natural gas fields associated with the LNG plant.

Maria van der Hoeven, executive director of the International Energy Agency, said from a conference in Tokyo the advent of LNG represents "a golden opportunity" for Asian economies with high energy demands.

First, however, regional governments need to reform market systems that the IEA director said undermine affordability and accessibility of LNG for regional consumers.

Asian demand for natural gas is expected to grow by as much as 8 trillion cubic feet by 2020.

The Curtis Island LNG project is fed by a 260-mile underground pipeline from the Bowen and Surat basins in Queensland. Santos says first deliveries of LNG are scheduled for next year.