johnstone should have spudded bu now, page-9

Inpex looking for buyer
NICK CALACOURAS

August 13th, 2010


Inpex is shopping around for another partner to buy a stake in its $20 billion Ichthys gas project.

The gas giant owns a 76 per cent stake in the project, with French partner Total holding the rest.

An Inpex spokesman in Tokyo yesterday confirmed to the NT News that the company was considering selling off some of the project - in exchange for the excess gas.

But he said this did not mean Inpex was pulling out of the project.


"We are considering this kind of deal to sell upstream interests to potential buyers," he said.

"This is not a fact. There is no decision. We are just considering this."

Chief Minister Paul Henderson last week told the Northern Territory News that the project - which would build a $12 billion plant in Darwin - was "absolutely definitely" coming. He was told by Inpex that the push to raise about $9 billion for the Darwin project was going well and would soon be fully subscribed.

He has also talked to some of the financiers who will bankroll the project and gas customers.

"Of course, it's not over until the fat lady sings, as they say," Mr Henderson said last week.

"But nothing I've seen here or been told suggests for one minute that it won't happen."

The plant is expected to make up a fifth of the Territory' economy over the next four decades.

The project is expected to inject $3.5 billion.

And the Territory economy is predicted to grow 18 per cent a year for the next 40 years.

The Inpex project is expected to produce 8.4 million tonnes of LNG and 1.6 million tonnes of LPG each year.

It will also produce 100,000barrels of condensate per day at its peak.

http://www.ntnews.com.au/article/2010/08/13/171921_nt-business.html