MEO'S long-standing plans to commercialize stranded gas in the Timor Sea are about to move forward with the arrival off Darwin of the West Atlas jack-up drilling rig. The newly constructed rig, owned by Seadrill, has been shipped from Singapore on the semi-submersible open-deck heavy-lift transport carrier Blue Marlin. The transporter is able to sink its load deck below sea-level to allow equipment to be floated off without using cranes. MEO, which used to be Methanol Australia, is planning a gas-to-liquids project in the Bonaparte Gulf using its 100 per cent-owned Tassie Shoal LNG project and the 50 per cent-owned Tassie Shoal ethanol project about 275km northwest of Darwin. The West Atlas rig will be towed to the Heron-2 well location in permit NT/P68 in the next week.