If the reports are true, this is good news for the North West Shelf and Gorgon which have missed out on a big Korean LNG supply contract. (Gorgon failed to even make the shortlist).
North West Shelf operator Woodside was relatively relaxed about the company’s failure to win the Kogas deal.
Woodside managing director Don Voelte said the North West Shelf partners would still proceed with a train-five expansion.
He added that the North West Shelf was the only existing LNG operation capable of expanding within a 2008 time frame and “there is an awful lot of need for LNG supply in that period”.
Much of that demand will be coming from India and The Financial Express reported that two other large Indian state-owned oil corporations – ONGC and Indian Oil – also want Australian LNG.
India’s petroleum ministry has indicated it wanted to participate in the entire gas supply chain as China does, rather than just buying LNG, the newspaper said.
According to senior petroleum ministry officials, GAIL will negotiate new LNG deals with Australia and Oman that would open the way to stakes in new exploration and production projects and other downstream ventures.
The ministry has indicated it is considering setting up greenfield LNG liquefaction plant in Australia with a initial capacity of 5 million tonnes per annum. In addition, ONGC is looking for farm-in opportunities in various oil and gas blocks in Australia, The Financial Express.
ONGC has informed the ministry that it is planning to import about 6 million tonnes of LNG per year from Australia for its proposed LNG terminal at Mangalore. GAIL has already started talks with Australian companies for sourcing around 1-1.5 milion tonnes a year for the Dabhol terminal, while Indian Oil is also looking at Australia for importing LNG for its Ennore plant.
GAIL executive director Shri A K Ray will be in Western Australia next week for the AustralAsian Oil and Gas (AOG) Conference.
