Korea Gas eyes 15pct of Santos venture

17-Dec-2010 Intellasia | Sydney Morning Herald | 7:01 AM

Update Korea Gas Corporation (Kogas) is negotiating to purchase a 15 percent stake in Santos’ GLNG coal seam gas project in Queensland’s Surat and Bowen Basins.

Santos says it’s in “advanced discussions” with Kogas to purchase 3.5 million tonnes per annum of liquefied natural gas (LNG) from the Gladstone LNG (GLNG) project and take a 15 percent stake.

Santos says GLNG and Kogas have not yet reached a definitive agreement.

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The project involves exploration and production of coal seam gas in the Surat and Bowen Basins, a 435 kilometre-gas pipeline from the gas fields to Gladstone and a gas liquefaction and export facility on Curtis Island.

Korea Gas, the world’s biggest buyer of liquefied natural gas, is seeking stable supplies of the cleaner-burning fuel and said in May it plans to spend 17.8 trillion won ($16 billion) by 2017 on overseas expansion. The company is also in talks to buy 9.8 percent of Indonesia’s Senoro project run by Mitsubishi Corp., it said October. 12.

Korea’s Yonhap News reported August 27 that the company was near agreement on buying a 10 percent stake in the Gladstone project for $1.5 billion, citing a company official it didn’t identify.

The Gladstone LNG project, a 7.2 million tonne per annum (mtpa) LNG export project, is 45 percent owned by Santos while Malaysia’s Petronas holds 35 percent and France’s Total holds 20%.

http://www.smh.com.au/business/korea-gas-eyes-15-of-santos-venture-20101216-18z2q.html