The world's largest LNG buyer said it was in talks to acquire a 15 per cent stake in a coal seam gas project led by Australia's Santos Ltd and a 9.8 per cent stake in Indonesia's Senoro Toili project run by Japan's Mitsubishi Corporation.
The company did not provide a financial value for either of the potential deals, but sources with knowledge of the Australian deal said in August that Korea Gas Corporation would invest more than $1 billion in the Santos's Gladstone LNG (GLNG) project.
"The $1 billion fundraising report lends credence to the first report that Korea Gas Corporation will take a larger 15 per cent of GLNG, rather than the 10 per cent commonly reported previously," said Benjamin Wilson, an analyst with JP Morgan in a note. "We think this news implies Korea Gas Corporation is confident it will achieve Korean government approval to contract/purchase soon," Wilson said.
Total paid A$650 million ($597.4 million at the time) for 15 per cent of the coal seam gas-fed liquefied natural gas project in Australia's north east state of Queensland in September.
Santos currently owns 45 per cent of Gladstone, Petronas has 35 per cent and Total holds 20 per cent.
In addition to buying a stake in the Gladstone LNG project, Korea Gas Corporation has also been expected to sign an offtake agreement for 2 million tonnes per annum of LNG from the project.
The state-run utility sold 24.6 million tonnes of LNG in 2009 and said in February that it was planning to spend about 1 trillion won ($895.4 million) this year on overseas resource development to secure energy supplies for Asia's fourth-largest economy.
source: APEC-VC Korea
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