The southern Thai province of Songkhla and northern Malaysian states are expected to benefit the most. Kalantar said TTM planned to allocate 152 jobs in 2005 in southern Thai solely for Thai workers. The jobs were mainly to support the entire 560-km long pipeline and the two-unit gas separation plant in the Chana district of Songkhla. The pipeline was designed not only to meet the demand for natural gas among industries in north Malaysia, but also southern Thailand when provinces there have lured more industrial-based investments. TTM, a joint venture between the Petroleum Authority of Thailand and Petroliam Nasional (Petronas), was formed to oversee the construction, management, and operations of the three-metre deep underground pipeline. The project comprises a 560-km pipeline from the Gulf of Thailand to the shore at Songkhla where a two-unit gas-separation plant will be constructed in Chana district before connection to the northern part of Malaysia through Changloon in Kedah. The pipeline serves to meet the growing energy demand of natural gas for southern Thai and northern Malaysia under the auspices of the Joint Malaysia-Thailand Development Area (JDA) framework. The income from the natural gas would be shared by both Thailand and Malaysia under the framework of JDA, so many southern Thais were in support of the project despite protests and incitement from certain quarters to reject the project.