I don;t Yowler that swimming pool for the drillers looks a bit...

I don;t Yowler that swimming pool for the drillers looks a bit dodgy.




Japan ready to bankroll Inpex
NIGEL ADLAM | November 10th, 2010



An artist's impression of the Inpex development
MAJOR Japanese financial institutions are backing the multibillion-dollar Darwin gas project.

Mizuho Financial Group, one of the biggest finance houses in the world, is a frontrunner to bankroll the development of the Ichthys field and the building of a LNG plant at Blaydin Point.

An Inpex investor "road show" raised $6.6 million in capital for the project.

The total cost of extracting the gas, piping it more than 800km to Darwin and processing it at a plant alongside Darwin Harbour was to have cost $25 billion. But experts believe that will blow out to $30 billion by the time the project gets fully under way in 2012.

Inpex will not make a final investment decision on the project until the last quarter of next year. But it has spent about $60 million on preliminary work in Darwin already, and the company's language has changed subtly - press releases now sound more definite about the gas being piped to the NT.

Darwin already has one LNG plant - the ConocoPhillips operation at Wickham Point.

YOUR SAY
"Both gas projects in WA and Gladstone in QLD are stugeling to find the people to do the job,they are just not here so get real and stop the con job Impex you dont have the loot and you dont have the sales to get the finance,simple as that,you came here on the skirt of the former Chief Minister cuz you Knew you had zero chance in WA against the other GIANT consortium that have more than enough loot to go it alone.Splashing a million here and a million there just dont cut it."
Smee Again
Deputy Chief Minister and Treasurer Delia Lawrie overcame her fear of flying last week and went to Tokyo to talk to Inpex and major investors. She met Mizuho Corporate Bank head Shuichi Honda.

Ms Lawrie said Japanese financial institutions confirmed to her their support for the Inpex project.

The Minister also met officials from the Japanese Trade Ministry, which has an 18 per cent holding in Inpex, to discuss research and exploration that Japanese businesses could carry out in the Territory.

The NT Government wants to catch the eye of Japanese investors in other ways. It staged the Japan Mineral Investment Attraction Strategy seminar in Sydney this week. The seminar was backed by the Japan Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the Japan Oil Gas and Metals National Corporation, which is a world leader in new energy technology. Excluding Inpex, Japanese companies have publicly announced that they have invested $41.5 million in NT mining enterprises.

The Territory was the only Australian jurisdiction to enjoy an increase in resources exploration spending during the last financial year - a record $148 million.


http://www.ntnews.com.au/article/2010/11/10/193161_nt-business.html