Australian firm 'shortlisted' to supply LNG to Singapore

Today Online 6 Mar 08;

Australia's Woodside Petroleum said it is among the companies shortlisted in January to become the exclusive supplier of liquefied natural gas (LNG) to Singapore, the first of five firms to have publicly identified itself.

Chief executive and managing director Don Voelte of Perth-based Woodside, Australia's largest listed oil and gas exploration and production company, will brief the media today on its plans for Singapore's first LNG plant, the company said in a statement.

Singapore's Energy Market Authority (EMA) announced on Jan 14 that it chose five firms for the second stage of selection to find an "aggregator" but did not provide names, citing requests for confidentiality.

"EMA targets to select the aggregator in the second quarter of 2008," the regulator said at the time.

When selected, the aggregator, which may be a consortium of firms and may comprise natural gas producers or end-users, will consolidate demand from end-users across the country and buy LNG on their behalf.

The planned LNG facility, to be built on the oil and petrochemical hub of Jurong Island, will include a receiving terminal and a re-gasification plant and is scheduled to open in 2012. The facility is likely to cost "in the ballpark of S$1 billion to US$1 billion ($1.4 billion)", Minister of State for Trade and Industry S Iswaran said in September last year, when he named gas distributor Power Gas to build the plant.

The EMA received 18 proposals involving 22 firms during the first stage of selection, which closed on Dec 4. — Dow Jones

Aussie firm a top contender to buy LNG for Singapore
Woodside Energy bidding to be LNG aggregator
Ronnie Lim, Business Times 6 Mar 08;

AUSTRALIAN LNG for use by power stations here - that is the likely scenario especially if Australia's Woodside Energy, which has emerged as one of a handful of shortlisted, second-round contenders to be the sole LNG buyer for Singapore, eventually wins.

A study by a Tokyo Gas Engineering-led consortium which advised the Energy Market Authority (EMA) on the LNG project here had earlier also identified four Australian gas fields and one in Qatar as the top five potential suppliers of the liquefied natural gas to Singapore.

Woodside, Australia's largest oil and gas exploration and production company with a market capitalisation of over A$35 billion (S$45 billion), is expected to disclose more details of its bid to become the LNG aggregator for Singapore at a media conference today.

The EMA in January announced that it had shortlisted five groups vying to be the LNG aggregator from a total of 18 initial proposals involving 22 companies. But it did not disclose the identities of the five then - with Woodside now known to be one - following requests for confidentiality from some groups.

The authority said that it expects to choose the aggregator in the second quarter.

Woodside said in its advisory that it is 'looking for the optimal outcome for Singapore's energy future, and believes the solution may be geographically very close'.

The company, a pioneer in the LNG business in Australia, is the region's pre-eminent LNG operator.

It operates one of the world's largest LNG projects - the A$20 billion North West Shelf Venture in Western Australia, and it is also building the Pluto LNG Project which will begin production in late-2010. It also operates the Browse and Sunrise LNG developments, both scheduled to begin construction early next decade.

The four Australian gas fields identified by Tokyo Gas to be the best potential suppliers to Singapore are two on the North West Shelf and the Gorgon and Browse fields nearby.

Singapore intends to start building the estimated S$1 billion LNG terminal on Jurong Island by year-end or early next year to enable it to start importing LNG by late-2011/early 2012, S Iswaran, Minister of State for Trade and Industry, has said.

He added that the main consideration in the choice of the aggregator will be that 'Singapore gets reliable steady supplies of LNG at competitive prices'.

Of the five shortlisted contenders, he indicated that 'some have their own sources of gas, some are involved in trading'.

The aggregator is expected to initially bring in 0.8-1.2 million tonnes per annum of LNG, with this building up to 3 million tpa by 2018. The latter date is when the LNG aggregator's exclusive import licence is expected to lapse, at which time others will be free to import LNG.

LNG is meant to help Singapore diversify its source of natural gas, which at the moment is piped in from neighbouring Malaysia and Indonesia - both of which are expected to increasingly need the gas for their own domestic use.