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ENERGY TECH
Australia posed to be LNG leader
by Staff Writers
Sydney (UPI) Apr 11, 2012


Australia could surpass Qatar as the world's largest exporter of liquefied natural gas by the end of the decade, experts say.

Australian oil and gas major Woodside's $15.1 billion Pluto LNG project, scheduled to deliver its first shipment this month, adds a "third leg" to Australia's resources boom which has been fueled by exports of coal and iron ore, the Financial Times reports.

The project will process gas from the Pluto and Xena gas fields in Western Australia, estimated to contain 4.8 trillion cubic feet of dry gas reserves.

Pluto is underpinned by 15-year sales agreements with Japan's Kansai Electric and Tokyo Gas, both of which became project participants in January 2008, each acquiring a 5 percent interest.

Australia now has under construction 70 percent of the world's LNG capacity, capable of supporting 40-50 years of production, says Australia's Bureau of Resources and Energy Economics.

Those projects - seven in total, not counting Pluto - together total $175 billion in committed LNG investment, Australian federal resources and energy minister Martin Ferguson said at last month's Energy State of the Nation Forum in Sydney.

Yet Australia's LNG sector isn't without challenges, including strict regulations and rising project costs. Woodside's Pluto, for example, was originally targeted for production last year and incurred $900 million in additional costs, International Business Times reports.

On Monday, Woodside said it would delay its final investment decision until the middle of 2013 on its proposed $30 billion Browse LNG project in Western Australia.

That project includes three gas fields estimated to contain a combined contingent resource of about 13.3 trillion cubic feet of dry gas and 360 million barrels of concentrate.

Australia also faces increasing LNG competition, particularly from the United States, posed to become a major exporter because of its shale gas reserves.

"From a buyer's perspective, security of supply is critical and foremost in their minds when they are contracting volumes," Craig McMahon, head of Australasia upstream research at Wood Mackenzie was quoted as saying by the Times.

"While Australia may have challenges, it's still OECD production, it's still low political risk and even if projects are a bit late, it is still safe and secure production for the next 20 to 30 years."

Noting that the United States' LNG arena is based on cheap Henry Hub gas - the benchmark U.S. gas price - McMahon says: "that's something a Japanese or South Korean buyer can't control and that makes them feel uncomfortable."

Post Fukushima, Japan is increasingly relying on LNG to replace the nuclear power shortfall, as only one of its 54 commercial nuclear power plants is currently in operation.

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Asia-Europe consortium to produce LNG in Canada
Tokyo (AFP) April 12, 2012 - Japan's Mitsubishi said Thursday it was in talks with Royal Dutch Shell as well as a Chinese and a South Korean firm to produce liquefied natural gas (LNG) in Canada.

The deal, reportedly worth more than $12.0 billion, would see the four companies including China National Petroleum and Korea Gas build an LNG terminal in the western province of British Columbia.

"It is true that talks are being held among the four companies although we are not at the stage of announcing details," a Mitsubishi spokesman told AFP.

The facility would produce about 12 million tons of the gas annually amid surging demand for the commodity across Asia, the Nikkei business daily reported Thursday.

Japan, which has few natural resources, and South Korea are the world's top LNG importers, accounting for nearly half of all imports.

The gas, which is temporarily liquefied for easier storage and transportation, would be delivered by a pipeline to the new terminal from gas fields owned by the four companies, the Nikkei said.

Production was expected to begin around 2020 with the total costs of the project more than 1.0 trillion yen ($12.4 billion), the Nikkei report said, adding that it was unclear how much of the project each firm would own.

An agreement, subject to local approval, was expected as early as this month, it said.

In February, Mitsubishi spent 230 billion yen to buy a 40.0 percent interest in a shale gas field from Canada's Encana Corp, while Korea Gas is the world's single-largest corporate buyer of LNG, importing 30 million tons annually.

Japan is pushing to find new energy sources amid strong public opposition to restarting the country's atomic reactors after last year's quake-tsunami disaster sparked the worst nuclear accident in a generation.



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