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.
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