TOKYO: A consortium including Japan’s JERA and Marubeni Corp is aiming to ship liquefied natural gas (LNG) to Australia’s east coast, looking to supply industrial gas users and possibly a new power plant, the group said on Monday.
A final investment decision is expected this year on the project to import up to around 2 million tonnes a year of LNG starting in 2020, James Baulderstone, who is leading the Australian Industrial Energy group, told Reuters.
“This market is in quite desperate need for more gas to come in,” said Baulderstone, a former Santos Ltd executive, pointing to soaring energy prices.
The LNG receiving terminal would be able to meet up to three-quarters of the gas needs of Australia’s most populous state, New South Wales, where manufacturers like BlueScope Steel and Orica have major operations.
Baulderstone said the consortium would probably charter an existing LNG import vessel, at an estimated cost of around $30 million to $35 million a year, rather than building a new floating storage and regasification unit (FSRU).
That is a fraction of the billions of dollars that would be needed to develop a new gas field and pipelines to supply the equivalent volume of gas, 100 petajoules a year.
“The efficiency of capital is extraordinary because you don’t have to spend that much capital to effectively charter a boat and connect it to the existing east coast grid,” he said.
The proposed new LNG import terminal would be located at either Port Botany, Port Kembla and Newcastle, all of which are close to existing gas pipelines, helping to keep down costs.
Australian Industrial Energy’s investors, as first reported by the Australian Financial Review, are mining billionaire Andrew Forrest’s Squadron Energy, Marubeni and JERA, the world’s biggest LNG buyer, which is a joint venture of Tokyo Electric Power Co and Chubu Electric Power Co.
