Australian $90 billion gas megadeal with Japan By Felicity Williams From: Herald Sun January 07, 2010 AUSTRALIA has cemented its biggest trade deal with a $90 billion agreement to export liquefied natural gas to Japan.
The contract, signed on the eve of the international climate change conference in Copenhagen, comes as big Asian countries scramble to lock up long-term supplies of the low-emissions fuel.
US oil giant Chevron announced on the weekend it would deliver 4.1 million tonnes of LNG from its Wheatstone project off the coast of Western Australia to Japan's largest utility, Tokyo Electric Power Co, each year for up to 20 years.
The two parties did not disclose the value of the sales agreement, but energy experts estimate the deal to be worth a record-breaking $90 billion.
That tops the nation's previous biggest export agreement, ExxonMobil's $50 billion contract to supply LNG to China from the massive Gorgon field, also in WA, unveiled in August. About $127 billion in Australian LNG projects are expected to start exports between 2012 and 2018.
Resources and Energy Minister Martin Ferguson has predicted the investments will transform Australia into an "energy superpower".
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