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Japan's Inpex considering stake sale for Ichthys LNG buyers

https://www.chemnet.com   Aug 11,2010
Japan's Inpex Corp is considering selling stakes in the upstream portion of its Ichthys project in Australia to prospective LNG buyers, a company official said Tuesday.


The company has already received interest from some buyers in taking upstream stakes, the official said. But as yet the company has not decided on the extent of any sale, he added, and the size of any stakes would be the subject of talks with potential buyers.


The official said that the company was looking to sign preliminary heads of agreements with LNG buyers prior to taking the final investment decision on the project.


In May, Inpex delayed an FID on the Ichthys LNG project until the fourth quarter of 2011 and rescheduled production startup to Q4 2016. The company had
been expecting to make an FID this year and was targeting first LNG in 2015.


Several Australian LNG projects have in the past several months sold stakes to buyers alongside offtake sales. Several sources have said that producers have offered stakes in an effort to attract buyers in a market seen as somewhat over-supplied.


Inpex is looking at selling upstream stakes in the associated fields for the Ichthys project, rather than in the project itself, the official said.


The Ichthys project is 76% owned by Inpex Browse Oil, with the rest held by Total E&P Australia.


The gas field has 12.8 trillion cubic feet of natural gas reserves and 52.7 barrels of condensate.


The project will produce 8.4 million mt/year of LNG, 1.6 million mt/year of LPG, and 100,000 b/d of condensate.
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