Rick Wilkinson
OGJ Correspondent
MELBOURNE, Nov. 15 -- LNG Ltd., Perth, and Iran's state-owned National Iranian Oil Co. (NIOC) have signed a gas supply deal by which NIOC will provide as much as 530 MMcfd of gas to LNG Ltd.'s proposed LNG production project on Qeshm Island, off Iran. NIOC has identified several gas fields for potential development near the proposed plant.
The project marks LNG Ltd.'s initial move into the Middle East. The company plans to construct a 3.5 million tonne/year LNG liquefaction plant at Qeshm, to produce LNG for sale in India or East Africa.
It will develop the facility in three stages: The first, scheduled to come on stream in first quarter 2010, will have an annual production capacity of 1.15 million tonnes. LNG Ltd. expects financial close to be reached within a year.
To fast-track the project, the company will immediately select its preferred site on Qeshm Island. It will benefit from work already done during the last 18 months on its proposed Padang LNG Project in central Sulawesi, Indonesia.
Both projects involve similar-sized production trains, construction techniques, and scheduling and are expected to take 2 years to build.
