State-run CPC Corp, Taiwan (CPC, 台灣中油) is in talks with Exxon Mobil Corp to buy liquefied natural gas (LNG) from its US$12.5 billion venture in Papua New Guinea, spokesman and vice president Lin Maw-wen (林茂文) said by telephone yesterday.
The pending deal is among more than 10 proposed projects in Australia and Papua New Guinea seeking to tap a forecast increase in demand in North Asia for cleaner-burning fuels. Overseas LNG shipments account for more than 95 percent of Taiwan’s natural gas supplies, and CPC is the nation’s only importer of the fuel.
Miles Shaw, an Exxon Mobil spokesman in Port Moresby, declined to comment when reached by telephone.
Exxon Mobil said on Monday it had reached “commercial terms” with three Asian buyers, including Tokyo Electric Power Co and Osaka Gas Co, for 4.3 million tonnes of LNG a year. China Petroleum & Chemical Corp (中國石化) is a potential buyer apart from the three Asian utilities, Shaw said on Monday.
CPC has multi-year contracts to buy LNG from Indonesia, Malaysia and Qatar. Its deal with Indonesia will expire this year. The firm signed an accord with Woodside Petroleum Ltd of Australia in November 2007 for purchases of as much as 3 million tonnes of LNG a year, with deliveries starting in 2013 at the earliest.
Exxon Mobil and its five partners may approve Papua New Guinea’s largest investment before the end of this year, Oil Search Ltd, one of the holders, said in a statement on Monday last week. They would start construction early next year, according to Port Moresby-based Oil Search.
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