Inpex to sell partial stake in Australian offshore block

Inpex Cash Maple has signed a sales and purchase agreement to transfer 2.625 percent, 1.20 percent, and 0.42 percent of its participating interest in the block to OPIC Australia, a unit of Taiwan’s CPC, Osaka Gas Ichthys, a unit of Japan’s Osaka Gas, and Toho Gas Ichthys Development, a unit of Japan’s Toho Gas, respectively.

The completion of the transaction remains conditional on regulatory approvals.

Inpex did not disclose the financial details of the transaction.

Inpex currently holds 74 percent while Total Energies Exploration Australia, a unit of France’s TotalEnergies, holds 26 percent in the block.

Following the completion of the transaction, Inpex will have a 69.755 percent stake in the block.

Last year, Inpex and its partner TotalEnergies signed a deal with Thailand’s PTTEP to buy this block located offshore Western Australia in order to secure additional resources for the Ichthys LNG export plant near Darwin.

The AC/RL7 block is located off the northern coast of Western Australia and covers a surface
area of about 418 square kilometers, where the water depth ranges between 120 and 240 meters.

Inpex said the block lies approximately 250 kilometers northeast of the Ichthys gas-condensate field, which supplies natural gas to the Inpex-operated Ichthys LNG project.

“Notably, natural gas and condensate fields have been discovered at the AC/RL7 block, raising expectations that the block will contribute to enhancing the project’s resilience and stable output,” Inpex said.

The first liquefaction train at the Ichthys LNG export plant recently resumed full operations, a spokesman for Inpex told LNG Prime last week.

The 8.9 mtpa Ichthys LNG plant sent 104 LNG cargoes during January-November this year.

Inpex expects the project to ships about 10 LNG cargoes in December.

This means that Inpex expects to ship about 114 LNG cargoes this year.

Last year, the LNG plant sent a record 129 LNG cargoes, 17 more cargoes compared to 2022, as part of the company’s plans to boost production to about 9.3 mtpa due to debottlenecking.

The plant shipped 11 LNG cargoes in 2018, 104 LNG cargoes in 2019, 122 LNG cargoes in 2020, 117 LNG cargoes in 2021, and 112 LNG cargoes in 2022.

Besides TotalEnergies, other partners in the Ichthys project include Australian units of CPC, Osaka Gas, Kansai Electric Power, Jera, and Toho Gas.