keep your eye on the prize!, page-23

It will be interesting to see how quickly APLNG secures offtake agreements and equity selldowns now that all approvals are in. Origin had alluded to customers being ready to go, just pending these (delayed) approvals.

- So, this is the third CSG to LNG project to have achieved all the regulatory approvals in QLD.

- Despite David Knox' calls for consolidation late in 2009 ("the window is closing"), no such consolidation has happened. And as such, each project remains in competition with each other to secure economies of scale and diversity of supply. And we know that the return on each successive train improves with extra gas - the first train is marginal, the second profitable, and third highly profitable. So, I look forward to APLNG locking up their uncontracted reserves with buyers other than Santos, BG and Shell. It all increases the competitive tension and reduces the options for these other projects.

Another positive development for the industry. Forget the hype and the beat-up journalism - the governmental approvals are the important thing. Regulatory certainty.

Yaq