From the MEO thread:Maybe us? Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee.Korea...

From the MEO thread:

Maybe us? Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee.

Korea Gas Said to Be in Talks to Buy Australian Project Stake

By Shinhye Kang

Sept. 9 (Bloomberg) -- Korea Gas Corp., the world’s biggest buyer of liquefied natural gas, is close to buying a stake in an Australian gas project to diversify sources of supply, a company official said.

The state-run utility may buy a stake of less than 10 percent and import at least 1 million metric tons of the fuel from the project annually, or 3.6 percent of its imports, said the official who asked not to be identified because the negotiations are confidential. He declined to name the project.

Australia is planning at least 10 LNG ventures, including Chevron Corp.’s A$50 billion ($43 billion) Gorgon project and Santos Ltd.’s proposed A$7.7 billion Gladstone plant, which will catapult the country to the world’s biggest supplier of the fuel after Qatar by 2016. South Korea imports more than 90 percent of its term LNG supplies from Qatar, Oman, Indonesia and Malaysia.

Lee Kwa Hyung, a spokesman at Korea Gas, declined to comment on the negotiations.

Korea Gas plans to buy between 25 percent and 30 percent of its requirements from Australia compared with 1.8 percent now, the official said, without giving a timeframe. The Seongnam, South Korea-based company imported 27.9 million tons of gas last year.

Imports may fall to between 24 million tons and 25 million tons this year because of lower demand caused by the economic slowdown, the official said.

Korea Gas has fallen 11.5 percent this year in Seoul trading compared with a 43 percent gain in the benchmark Kospi Index. The stock dropped 0.8 percent to close at 50,900 won today.

The company will seek to increase overseas investment to secure additional output, Korea Gas said in March. In May, the company acquired 10 percent of Australian coal-seam gas explorer Blue Energy Ltd. for 12.8 billion won ($10.4 million), with the option of taking stakes in drilling permits in Queensland state