LNG

Japanese city gas supplier Shizuoka Gas will invest $100 million in MidOcean Energy, the LNG platform backed by US infrastructure investor EIG, building on Idemitsu Kosan’s $500 million commitment as oil refiner aspires a “full-scale entry into the LNG business.”

MidOcean Energy, the LNG assets company formed and managed by global infrastructure investor EIG, said Japanese trading house Mitsubishi Corp. had made a strategic investment.

EIG is a leading institutional investor in the global energy and infrastructure sectors with around $23 billion under management and also announced on March 28 that it had completed the acquisition of the portfolio interests in Australia of Tokyo Gas.

Mitsubishi has been an active player in the LNG sector for over 50 years and is involved in 12 projects, including the LNG Canada venture that comes on stream soon in the province of British Columbia.

The Japanese company made the investment In MidOceam to develop its clean-energy portfolio while fulfilling its responsibility as a stable energy supplier to Japan.

EIG’s MidOcean said that Mitsubishi’s investment, the details of which were not disclosed, deepened MidOcean’s blue-chip base and builds on its “significant momentum” since launching in late 2022.

Blue-chip investors

“We are thrilled to have Mitsubishi join as an anchor investor,” said De la Rey Venter, Chief Executive of MidOcean.

“Mitsubishi has been a pioneer of the global LNG industry and has consistently demonstrated its expertise and foresight in identifying valuable opportunities,” Venter added.

“Their investment is a testament to the strong fundamentals of the LNG market and MidOcean’s strategy to create a competitive long-term growth platform in LNG,” stated the MidOcean CEO.

R. Blair Thomas, EIG’s Chairman and CEO, said he welcomed a strategic partnership with a company such as Mitsubishi.

“The world’s energy transition needs are contributing to rapid growth in global LNG demand, and we look forward to continuing to execute on this attractive and important opportunity,” added Thomas.

Tokyo Gas deal

MidOcean’s recent completion of the acquisition of the Tokyo Gas assets in Australia gives it stakes in the Chevron-operated Gorgon LNG, the Pluto LNG project run by Woodside Energy and the Shell-operated Queensland Curtis LNG venture.

As part of the transaction, MidOcean said it would open an office in Perth in Western Australia to support and oversee the projects.

EIG is headquartered in Washington DC and also has offices in Houston, Texas, London, Sydney, Rio de Janeiro, Hong Kong and Seoul.

For the completion of the MidOcean-Tokyo Gas deal Barrenjoey, Barclays and JP Morgan acted as financial advisors to EIG and MidOcean in connection with the transaction.

White & Case acted as legal advisor to EIG and MidOcean.

EIG’s clients include many of the leading pension plans, insurance companies, endowments, foundations and sovereign wealth funds around the world.

Australia is considering extending the life of the country’s largest coal-fired power plant located in the state of New South Wales and owned by Australia-Pacific LNG stakeholder Origin Energy because of concerns over energy security.

Origin Energy, the Australian upstream supplier to the Australia-Pacific LNG export plant in Queensland facing a A$18.4 billion (US$12.3 billion) buyout offer from a two-firm consortium led by Canada's Brookfield Asset Management, said the due diligence on the deal was largely completed.

Origin said in a statement to the Australian Securities Exchange that it was continuing its “active engagement” with Brookfield and consortium partner MidOcean Energy, an LNG company formed and managed by US-based energy investor EIG.

“Origin advises that the Consortium has substantially completed due diligence and active engagement continues on a non-exclusive basis in relation to the submission of a binding proposal,” said Origin.

The Sydney-based company noted that any binding proposal would be subject to a number of conditions, including approval by Australian regulators.

“At this stage, shareholders do not need to take any action and Origin will continue to keep shareholders updated in accordance with its continuous disclosure obligations,” said the company.

Origin’s business comprises Integrated Gas with its feed-gas sales to Australia-Pacific LNG and a utilities and domestic power markets unit, the Energy Markets division.

This is made up of retail and wholesale electricity sales and natural gas supplies to the states of Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia.

Targeted

The bid for Origin from Brookfield comes after its offer in 2022 to buy Australia's leading utility, AGL Energy, was rejected.

The Origin buy-out proposal was made through the Brookfield Global Transition Fund, which is co-run by Mark Carney, the former Governor of the Bank of England.

Under the proposal to acquire Origin, Brookfield would take over the company’s Energy Markets business, while MidOcean Energy, in the form of EIG, would take control of Origin's Integrated Gas business, including its 27.5 percent stake in APLNG.

The APLNG plant stake that would go to EIG’s MidOcean under the Origin buy-out is a supplier to China and one of its shareholders is China Petroleum & Chemical Corp, known as Sinopec.

Origin is the main upstream operator for coal-seam gas supply to the facility while US major ConocoPhillips is the plant operator.

APLNG came on stream in 2016 and has two liquefaction Trains with total nameplate capacity of around 9 million tonnes per annum with about 7 MTPA going to China.

The plant sits alongside two other CSG-to-LNG facilities on Curtis Island, the Shell-run Queensland Curtis LNG plant and the Gladstone plant, operated by Santos.

July 21 (LNGJ) - Fluxys, the Belgian utility company and grid and Zeebrugge LNG terminal owner, has completed its acquisition with EIG Global Energy Partners of 80 percent of the shares in the Quintero LNG import terminal in Chile from Spanish grid and terminals operator Enagás and OMERS Infrastructure, the Toronto-based Canadian fund.

   “GNL Quintero, strategically located in Quintero Bay and operational since 2009, is the largest liquefied natural gas regasification terminal in Chile. It is a solid fit with Fluxys’ strategy to develop outside Europe in a country where energy transition stands high on the agenda,” said Fluxys.

Fluxys LNG, the operator of the Belgian import terminal in Zeebrugge, said it successfully closed an open season for additional regasification capacity and would now go ahead with installing new infrastructure

“During the binding window of the open season, the full 6 million tonnes per annum, or 10.5 gigawatt hours, of capacity on offer has been subscribed,” said Fluxys, without disclosing the successful bidders.

The company stated that as a result of the regasification take-up it was able to make a final investment decision to build the additional infrastructure required at the Zeebrugge facility.

Fluxys said the additional regasification capacity would be provided in two steps.

Firstly, from early 2024, a total of 4.7 MTPS (8.2 GWh/h) of additional regasification capacity will be available.

Secondly, as from early 2026, the full 6 MTPA (10.5 GWh/h) of additional regasification capacity would be taken up.

Fluxys Belgium also operates the high-pressure natural gas transmission network as well as other natural gas storage infrastructure.

Fluxys assets also include a stake in Dunkirk LNG in France as well as the Trans-Adriatic Pipeline.

The company in January 2021 also agreed to buy a minority stake from the equity fund, EIG Global Energy Partners (EIG), in a gas system operator in Brazil.

The deal is for part of the Brazilian utility, Transportadora Brasileira Gasoduto Bolívia-Brasil (TBG), which is the owner and operator of a 2,600-kilometres pipeline system in the southern part of the South American country.

Fluxys and TBG are also exploring further strategic cooperation in Brazil’s gas infrastructure market.

Australian LNG stakeholder Santos has rejected the $10.8-billion takeover offer from US equity fund Harbour Energy because it undervalued the Adelaide-based company and would have required Santos to provide significant support for Harbour’s debt-raising and to hedge a significant proportion of oil-linked production.

Kinder Morgan, the US pipeline company, has received permission from US regulators to advance with further work on storage for its export project at Elba Island near Savannah in the state of Georgia.

Kinder Morgan, the US pipeline company, has taken investment fund firm EIG Global Energy (EIG) as its partner in the US LNG export project at Elba Island in the state of Georgia.