ConocoPhillips sticks to coal-seam LNG timeframe

www.reuters.com
May 31, 2009

DARWIN, June 1 (Reuters) - U.S, oil major ConocoPhillips (COP.N) and Australian partner Origin Energy (ORG.AX) are sticking with their 2014 production start-up date for a $24.5 billion gas-export project in Australia, despite uncertainty over future demand, a ConocoPhillips executive said on Monday.

Ryan Lance, ConocoPhillips head of exploration and production for Europe, Asia, Africa and the Middle East, downplayed speculation the four-train facility in Queensland state, each to produce 3.5 million tonnes a year, would be vulnerable to delays because of weak energy prices and rising costs. The project will rely on coal seam gas.

Development still hinges on a final investment decision not due until sometime in 2010, Lance told reporters after addressing the Australian Petroleum Production and Exploration Association (APPEA) industry conference in Darwin. "Our plans are to move forward and reach FID (final investment decision) by 2010 and have first LNG in 2014," he said.

Earlier on Monday, Australia opened six new offshore oil and gas fields for exploration, half where no permits have previously been issued in hopes of boosting its share of global supply. "While we currently have less than 10 percent of the global market, Australia is in a very strategic place to invest in LNG, particularly for international oil companies and independent LNG companies," Australian Resources Minister Martin Ferguson said.

Worldwide, oil companies are expected to slash capital expenditure by about a fifth, or by $100 billion, this year as demand wanes and financing proves more difficult, International Energy Agency Deputy Director Richard Jones said. Lance said Australia held the potential to follow Qatar as the world's No. 2 provider of LNG in about a decade, given existing projects and those on the drawing board.

But analysts have warned that Australia's half-dozen coal seam LNG export ventures face near-certain delays or may even be scrapped as weakening energy prices revise construction plans and force companies into partnerships. An APPEA report released on Monday said of 85 existing and proposed LNG projects worldwide, 12 of the 20 most expensive were in Australia.

There are four major, and three small, projects in Queensland state alone that plan to export coal seam gas as LNG. Besides the ConocoPhillips-Origin Energy partnership, Britain's BG Group Plc plans a two-train plant producing 7.4 million tonnes a year, and Petronas [PETR.UL] and Santos Ltd (STO.AX) jointly propose a 3.5 million tonnes a year project.

Royal Dutch Shell also intends to build a plant, though it is the least advanced of the projects and lacks gas reserves.