LNG

April 7 (LNGJ) - Inpex Corp., the Japanese LNG project developer in Australia and Indonesia, announced an oil discovery at the Bestari-1 exploration well in Block R offshore East Malaysia and plans to drill more wells for associated gas in an area where floating LNG projects are being developed. "Moving forward, Inpex and its partners will analyse and evaluate the data retrieved from the well, and proceed with plans to drill two exploratory wells to assess the possibility of new oil and natural gas deposits," the company said. Inpex owns a 27.5 percent stake in the block offshore Sabah. Other shareholders include JX Nippon Oil and Gas, Malaysia's Petronas and Santos of Australia. The state-owned Japan Oil, Gas and Metals National Corp. is to cover up to 50 percent of the exploration expenditure incurred by the Japanese firms.