Santos, Exxon take FID on Agogo tie-in to PNG LNG
Papua New Guinea (PNG) LNG partners – notably Santos and ExxonMobil – have approved a final investment decision to tie in the Agogo production facility in a bid to bolster feedstock and sustain LNG exports to 2028, and beyond.
Santos eyes $27 billion Papua LNG funding mix with heavy debt
Australian oil giant Santos is targeting a roughly US$27 billion capital spend for its integrated Papua LNG–PNG LNG expansion hub in Papua New Guinea, with up to three-fifths to be covered by debt finance.
Japanese energy developer Inpex signs clean LNG agreement with gas utility in historic city north of Tokyo
Inpex Corp., the Japanese operator of the Ichthys LNG plant in Australia and developer of the Abadi LNG project in Indonesia, has signed a natural gas and decarbonisation deal with Ashikaga City north of Tokyo known for its historic trees, flower beds and pristine water to supply gas from the next phase of cleaner LNG projects.
Leading Australian LNG and energy CEO Kevin Gallagher accorded flexible working for family reasons
One of Australia’s leading chief executives, Kevin Gallagher of liquefied natural gas and energy company Santos, has been given permission to undertake flexible working arrangements.
Papua New Guinea LNG expansion enters FEED process and expects first production by 2027
Papua LNG, the joint venture expansion project in Papua New Guinea involving France’s TotalEnergies, US major ExxonMobil and Australia’s Santos, has launched a full front-end engineering and design (FEED) process to expand the existing PNG LNG plant’s production by up to 6 million tonnes per annum.
Papua New Guinea PM urges LNG and mining sectors to ‘take my people with you’ in conference address
Papua New Guinea Prime Minister James Marape urged Australian LNG and mining sector investors to “take my people with you” in an address to a mining and petroleum conference in Sydney on future development projects in his Oceania nation.
Papua New Guinea firm Kumul gets favourable response from Australia’s Santos for bigger PNG LNG stake
Australian LNG and energy company Santos has been approached by Papua New Guinea’s state petroleum company to purchase for US$1.4 billion a 5 percent larger stake in the PNG LNG export project.
Australian and PNG LNG shareholder Santos sees 80 percent reserves surge from Oil Search merger and Barossa
Australian LNG plant operator Santos, which has plant and project stakes in Queensland and in the Northern Territory as well as in Papua New Guinea, said new proved plus probable reserves increased by 80 percent in the year due to the merger with Oil Search and the final investment decision on the Barossa gas field.
Australian LNG operator Santos reports record revenues and expects better in 2022 with Oil Search merged
Australian LNG operator Santos reported that stronger prices and higher sales volumes delivered a 34 percent increase in quarterly sales revenue to a record US$1.5 billion and even better was expected in 2022 with completed Oil Search merger.
Japanese buyer JERA will not renew long-term contract with QatarEnergy including Train 1 at Ras Laffan
JERA Co. Inc., the largest Japanese LNG buyer and power assets holder, has stated it would not be renewing long-term supply contracts for volumes from projects at Ras Laffan in Qatar amounting to 5.5 million tonnes per annum.
The contracts with Qatar are expiring at the end of the year. The deals were originally signed in 1997 and 1998 for the Qatargas 1 project.
JERA had inherited most of its worldwide contracts from Tokyo Electric Power Co. and Chubu Electric when the JERA joint venture was set up.
“Currently we are not considering contracting because we find it extremely difficult to extend the existing large contracts timing-wise,” JERA President Satoshi Onoda said of the Qatari long-term deals during a virtual conference.
The JERA President emphasized that the Tokyo-based company did not have a plan to give up all of its long-term LNG supply contracts.
Long-term portfolio
These sale and purchases agreements span liquefaction plants in Australia such as Wheatstone LNG, Darwin LNG, the FLNG Prelude plant as well as projects in Indonesia, Malaysia, Brunei and Papua New Guinea.
The Japanese company also receives cargoes from the Freeport export plant in Texas and could focus on more US volumes, as well as in the short-term spot LNG when needed.
In mid-November 2021, JERA s purchased a significant stake in Freeport LNG at Quintana Island in Texas and will invest in expansions as part of a plan to be able to direct cargoes to Japan even when global supplies are tight.
The Japanese company’s US subsidiary JERA Americas Inc., concluded a securities purchase agreement with infrastructure fund Global Infrastructure Partners to acquire around a 25.7 percent interest in Freeport for $2.5 billion.
For this transaction, JERA appointed US investment bank Goldman Sachs as its exclusive financial advisor.
The Freeport plant is located in Brazoria County, south of Houston, and is run by Chief Executive Michael Smith, an energy entrepreneur who developed the plant with almost 15 million tonnes per annum of LNG capacity.
It has use-or-pay liquefaction tolling agreements for most of the output from the three Trains with customers including JERA as well as Japanese utility Osaka Gas and European-based companies, UK major BP and German utility Uniper.
JERA noted that, together with Freeport LNG, the Japanese company has already contributed to the stable operation of Train 1 of the Freeport liquefaction project through its participation in that subsidiary.
JERA plans to work with Freeport to advance new LNG projects including production capacity expansion and the development of Train 4.
