Japanese energy major Inpex has signed an agreement with five major Japanese companies guaranteeing sales of 4 million tonnes per annum of LNG from its Ichthys project off the Western Australian coast for 15 years.
Following prevous announcements of sales to Japanese companies, all 8.4 million tonnes per annum of LNG from the Ichthys project off WA’s coast will be now be sold, with around 70 per cent going to Japan.
The Japanese utility companies include the Tokyo Electric Power Company, Tokyo Gas Co., The Kansai Electric Power Co., Osaka Gas Co., and the Kyushu Electric Power Company.
The joint venture between Inpex Corporation and Total will extract gas from the Ichthys field in the Browse Basin, which will then be transported via sea pipeline to an onshore liquefaction plant in Darwin.
Inpex also announced today it would transfer 1.2 per cent of Ichthys project equity interest to Osaka Gas Co., one of the companies purchasing LNG.
Today's agreement follows Inpex's announcement in November that a final investment decision on the project would be delayed until January.
Inpex and Total had targeted an FID by the end of 2011.
Total said recently the project would cost $US30 billion, a substantial increase on Inpex's original estimate of more than $US20 billion.
