|
||||||||
  |
||||||||
|
||||||||
|
||||||||
|
||||||||
|
||||||||
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Timor Sea methanol project a step closer
By Geoff Hiscock
SYDNEY, Australia (CNN) -- A $1.1 billion methanol project in the Timor Sea north of Australia has moved a step closer to reality after the Australian government gave it environmental approval. The decision saw a share-price jump for the project's tiny listed promoter, Methanol Australia. Shares on Tuesday put on almost 17 percent to A$0.14 and have gained 40 percent so far this year. The company, which has a market valuation of just A$18.5 million ($10.5 million), is held 16.9 percent by the much larger oil and gas producer, Santos. Methanol Australia said Tuesday it expects to begin work on its Tassie Shoal project off the coast of Darwin in 2004, with first production in 2007. It said methanol exports -- targeted to North Asian markets -- initially would be about A$480 million ($274 million) a year. The project still has some way to go before it joins the lineup of Australian resources exporters, but the government's environmental approval is crucial to its next moves. Methanol Australia managing director Chris Hart said the company had appointed Fluor Australia Pty Ltd -- part of the Fluor engineering and construction group -- as project manager. Looking for equity partnersIn addition, Hart said Japan's Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp. had been given the mandate to provide financial advice and find potential equity partners willing to take up to 50 percent of the project. The Tassie Shoal is an area of shallow water in the Timor Sea near the giant Evans Shoal gas field, 275 kilometers (170 miles) north of Darwin. Gas from Evans Shoal would be used as feedstock for two methanol plants that the company plans to build on two massive 174,000-tonne concrete platforms it will sink above Tassie Shoal. The two plants would each have a production capacity of 5,000 tonnes of methanol a day and consume 125 petajoules of natural gas a year at full capacity. Hart said the methanol would be shipped to Asian customers -- primarily in Japan, China, Korea and Taiwan. Methanol is an alcohol fuel which is seen as having the potential to augment or replace some motor vehicle fuels. Methanol Australia said in its statement to the Australian Stock Exchange that Tassie Shoal is in Australian waters. However, a report in The Australian newspaper on Tuesday said it was within the 200 nautical mile boundary that East Timor is entitled to claim under international law as its area of economic importance. East Timor involvementEast Timor, the newest independent nation in the region, is looking for economic benefit from the oil and gas reserves in the Timor Sea, but has had little luck so far. It is pinning most of its hopes on the Bayu-Undan field, where gas deliveries are due to begin in 2005, plus the controversial Greater Sunrise field. But last month, Australian oil and gas company Woodside Petroleum said two development options for Greater Sunrise were "not viable", effectively delaying any start to production. (Full story) Greater Sunrise lies 150 kilometers (93 miles) from East Timor. About 20 percent of the field is in the Australia-East Timor joint development zone of 30,000 square kilometers, with the rest falling in Australian territorial waters.
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
