Exxon Mobil Corp and its partners in a US$15 billion liquefied natural gas (LNG) project in Papua New Guinea completed an agreement to supply the fuel to Osaka Gas Co, clearing one of the last hurdles before construction.
The partners will supply about 1.5 million tonnes of LNG annually to Osaka Gas over a span of 20 years, the Irving, Texas-based company said in an e-mailed statement yesterday.
The companies plan to sign the remaining supply agreement with CPC Corp, Taiwan (台灣中油) by early next year, Miles Shaw, a spokesman for Exxon in Papua New Guinea, said by telephone yesterday.
The LNG development is among more than a dozen planned in Australia and the neighboring South Pacific nation aimed at tapping Asian demand for less-polluting alternatives to coal and oil.
Exxon and partners, including Port Moresby-based Oil Search Ltd and Adelaide-based Santos Ltd, said on Dec. 8 that they had decided to proceed with the project.
The venture partners arranged as much as US$14 billion in financing, more than enough to meet the debt required for the project, they said this month. With financing, the cost would rise to more than US$18 billion, Oil Search said.
Tokyo Electric Power Co, Japan’s biggest LNG buyer, completed an agreement to order 1.8 million tonnes of the fuel from the Papua New Guinea venture annually. China Petroleum & Chemical Corp (中國石化) agreed to buy about 2 million tonnes a year.
The project partners have said they intend to begin construction at the nation’s biggest resources project next year after they signed binding transactions with customers and arranged financing. Papua New Guinea’s economy may double in size as a result of the venture, Oil Search has estimated.
Meanwhile, China National Offshore Oil Corp (中國海洋石油) plans to build its sixth liquefied natural gas terminal in the country’s southern province of Fujian to meet demand for the cleaner-burning fuel.
The terminal, to be located in Ningde Industrial Zone, will be able to receive 2.6 million tonnes of LNG a year, the Fujian Provincial Development and Reform Commission said in a statement on its Web site.
Chinese oil companies are building or planning 15 LNG import terminals as the country targets doubling the use of the fuel by next year. China National Offshore received state approval this year to build an LNG terminal in Ningbo, its fourth, and currently operates three terminals in Guangdong, Fujian and Shanghai on the eastern coast.
The oil company is planning to build its fifth LNG terminal in Zhuhai in Guangdong.
The company will also build a 10 million-tonne crude oil stockpile in Ningde, said the statement, which didn’t say if it’s for emergency or commercial use. China started constructing the second phase of its emergency oil reserves this year to bolster the nation’s energy security.
MORE VISITORS: The Tourism Administration said that it is seeing positive prospects in its efforts to expand the tourism market in North America and Europe Taiwan has been ranked as the cheapest place in the world to travel to this year, based on a list recommended by NerdWallet. The San Francisco-based personal finance company said that Taiwan topped the list of 16 nations it chose for budget travelers because US tourists do not need visas and travelers can easily have a good meal for less than US$10. A bus ride in Taipei costs just under US$0.50, while subway rides start at US$0.60, the firm said, adding that public transportation in Taiwan is easy to navigate. The firm also called Taiwan a “food lover’s paradise,” citing inexpensive breakfast stalls
TRADE: A mandatory declaration of origin for manufactured goods bound for the US is to take effect on May 7 to block China from exploiting Taiwan’s trade channels All products manufactured in Taiwan and exported to the US must include a signed declaration of origin starting on May 7, the Bureau of Foreign Trade announced yesterday. US President Donald Trump on April 2 imposed a 32 percent tariff on imports from Taiwan, but one week later announced a 90-day pause on its implementation. However, a universal 10 percent tariff was immediately applied to most imports from around the world. On April 12, the Trump administration further exempted computers, smartphones and semiconductors from the new tariffs. In response, President William Lai’s (賴清德) administration has introduced a series of countermeasures to support affected
CROSS-STRAIT: The vast majority of Taiwanese support maintaining the ‘status quo,’ while concern is rising about Beijing’s influence operations More than eight out of 10 Taiwanese reject Beijing’s “one country, two systems” framework for cross-strait relations, according to a survey released by the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) on Thursday. The MAC’s latest quarterly survey found that 84.4 percent of respondents opposed Beijing’s “one country, two systems” formula for handling cross-strait relations — a figure consistent with past polling. Over the past three years, opposition to the framework has remained high, ranging from a low of 83.6 percent in April 2023 to a peak of 89.6 percent in April last year. In the most recent poll, 82.5 percent also rejected China’s
PLUGGING HOLES: The amendments would bring the legislation in line with systems found in other countries such as Japan and the US, Legislator Chen Kuan-ting said Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Chen Kuan-ting (陳冠廷) has proposed amending national security legislation amid a spate of espionage cases. Potential gaps in security vetting procedures for personnel with access to sensitive information prompted him to propose the amendments, which would introduce changes to Article 14 of the Classified National Security Information Protection Act (國家機密保護法), Chen said yesterday. The proposal, which aims to enhance interagency vetting procedures and reduce the risk of classified information leaks, would establish a comprehensive security clearance system in Taiwan, he said. The amendment would require character and loyalty checks for civil servants and intelligence personnel prior to
RSS