Santos Ltd says its Crown gas prospect in Western Australia could turn out to be a large discovery and may be fed into major liquefied natural gas (LNG) projects in the area.

The liquids-rich prospect in the Browse Basin is offshore near the Ichthys gas fields, operated by Japan’s Inpex, and Royal Dutch Shell’s Prelude gas fields, which will be processed through the world’s first major floating LNG vessel.

It is also is not far from Woodside Petroleum’s Browse gas fields.

Santos chief executive David Knox said Crown could play a role in any of those major projects if it turned out to hold as much gas as hoped.

If exploration drilling at Crown in 2012 proved successful, the prospect could “unlock” the potential of several of Santos’ other targets in the area, Mr Knox said.

The company in November said there was potential for Crown and other nearby Santos-operated prospects to be developed on a stand-alone basis.

“We’re talking very significant volumes of gas – LNG scale volumes of gas – if this is successful,” he told a media teleconference after the company delivered a near 51 per cent lift in annual net.

“It’s between two important LNG projects, the Browse project and the now-sanctioned Ichthys project, and of course Prelude is very close as well.

“So it’s got a fantastic street address and if it comes in, it’s going to be a very interesting piece of acreage for us in the future.”

Combined, the Prelude, Ichthys and Browse projects are expected to cost at least $73 billion to develop.