Rick Wilkinson
OGJ Correspondent
MELBOURNE, Sept. 16 -- Chevron Corp. signed yet another customer for the Gorgon-Jansz-Io LNG project in Australia through a heads of agreement with state-owned Korea Gas Corp. for 1.5 million tonnes/year of LNG for 15 years.
The agreement includes an option to extend the contract to 20 years. Officials of the operating joint venture Chevron Australia Pty. Ltd. said it will be the largest long-term LNG sale between Australia and South Korea.
No price was given in the corporate announcement, but Australian media reported an estimate of $30 billion (Aus).
Chevron and Kogas are reportedly discussing potential LNG sales and an equity participation in Chevron’s proposed wholly owned Wheatstone project with a shore processing plant at Ashburton North near Onslow.
As South Korea’s sole provider of LNG, Kogas claims to be the world's largest LNG import firm. South Korea is the world's second largest importer of LNG after Japan.
Partners in the Chevron Australia JV are Chevron, 50% (47.75% once equity sales are approved to Osaka Gas and Tokyo Gas), plus ExxonMobil Corp. and Royal Dutch Shell PLC, with 25% each. The partners gave final investment approval to Gorgon's development earlier this week after signing sale contracts with South Korea, China, India, and Japan.
Prior to the Kogas deal, Chevron signed sales agreements with Osaka Gas, Tokyo Gas, and GS Caltex (of South Korea) for a total of more than 4 million tonnes/year of LNG. ExxonMobil has sales agreements with Petronet of India and PetroChina for its share of LNG production. Shell has yet to confirm its supply deals (OGJ Online, Sept. 14, 2009).