leviathan near, page-71

And you make the most money by sourcing your own gas and then adding value by turning into LNG, simple.

You are right, but just being the liquifier/exporter has much lower risk, if you sign a decent supply deal. The problems with the LNG projects in Qld is upstream, not downstream. If WPL are only operating downstream, that puts the financial risk on the supplier instead.

When the inevitable cost blowouts and under performing wells come up, as are almost certain IMO, it's the supplier's margins that are eroded, not the exporter.

WPL are on the record as claiming they have been vindicated by not getting involved in the CSG industry, so this to me sounds like they just want to apply their LNG expertise and not get mixed up in producing resource plays - an area they have zero experience in, and which they will be anxious to avoid given their successful dodging of the CSG bullet.

So while some may claim this is a mistake, getting involved in the full cycle operation would arguably be an even bigger one. And a streamlined, optimised LNG construction by an operator experienced at building and running them could actually maximise profitability and ROI.

Whether it happens or not remains to be seen, but after the problems with every upstream project WPL has on the horizon, I can understand how a purely downstream project could appeal.