LNG

Santos Ltd, the Australian operator of two liquefied natural gas export plants and a main shareholder in Papua New Guinea LNG assets, has signed a long-term supply deal with Hokkaido Gas Co., the Japanese utility.

Feb 1 (LNGJ) - Australian LNG developer Santos has agreed to an amendment to a sale agreement with Papua New Guinea company Kumul Petroleum Holdings whereby Kumul will take a 2.6 percent shareholding in the PNG LNG stake owned by Santos.

   Santos said that Kumul had paid US$352 million to Santos on 31 January 2024 to allow partial completion of the transaction. “The amendment provides additional time for Kumul to pay the remaining purchase price of US$241M,” added Adelaide-based Santos.

Australian energy company Santos reported solid annual and quarterly earnings with steady cargo flows from Gladstone LNG in Queensland and from Papua New Guinea while legal hold-ups were removed to push forward with bringing new feed-gas to Darwin LNG from where only one cargo was shipped in the fourth-quarter.

The Asia-Pacific region is expected to have gradually increasing liquefied natural gas demand, driven by the region's economic recovery and new regasification facilities coming online.

Australian liquefied natural gas operator Santos said its share of LNG output from its stakes in Australian and Papua New Guinea would be increasing in the years ahead as it also gave key dates for final investment decisions and first gas while acknowledging obstructions to its offshore activities by Australian regulatory uncertainty.

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.

The Australian Labor-led government plans to change the petroleum resource taxes regime to increase the tax paid by the liquefied natural gas industry over the next four fiscal years.

May 1 (LNGJ) - Santos, the Australian shareholder in Papua New Guinea LNG and its expansion project, has again extended its sell-down exclusivity period with Kumul Petroleum of PNG until the end of August 2023. The binding conditional offer from Santos to Kumul is to acquire a 5 percent interest in PNG LNG for asset value of US$1.4 billion, including a proportionate share of LNG project finance debt of around US$300 million.

   “Kumul has advised Santos it has now extended the period in which the offer will remain open until 31 August 2023. Santos has agreed to deal exclusively with Kumul during this period regarding the sale of equity in PNG LNG,” said Santos. “Kumul has agreed it will work closely with Santos during this extension period in order to assist it in arranging the finalisation of its acquisition financing with third parties. There is also strong support from both the government and the joint venture partners for the transaction proceeding,” added Adelaide-based Santos.

Origin Energy, the Australian upstream supplier to the Australia-Pacific LNG export plant in Queensland, said it expected a sizeable increase in underlying earnings from its utilities business, though signalled possible lower coal-seam-gas output affecting APLNG because of weather issues.

One of Australia’s leading energy market regulators has said that the events in Ukraine had pushed global energy markets further into the unknown and that gas supply problems for Europe could get much worse and LNG exporter Australia is also on course for severe gas shortages.