Taiwan’s CPC in Talks to Buy Stake in Woodside’s LNG Project
CPC Corp., Taiwan’s state-owned oil refiner, said it is in talks with Woodside Petroleum Ltd. (WPL) to buy a stake of less than 10 percent of the proposed Browse liquefied natural gas project in Western Australia.
The company is negotiating details of a multi-year LNG supply agreement with Perth-based Woodside and wants to sign a contract this year, Chen Ming-huei, a CPC spokesman, said by telephone today. CPC said in 2010 it extended a preliminary accord to buy the fuel from the Browse venture to continue discussions aimed at completing a transaction.
Mitsui & Co. is also interested in buying a stake in the venture, a spokesman for the Japanese trading company said by telephone from Tokyo. A decision is yet to be reached, said the official who declined to be named citing company policy.
Woodside, which has a 46 percent stake in the planned LNG venture, is assessing the potential sale of a “minority portion” of the company’s holding, it said Jan. 27. Woodside could fetch $1.6 billion selling 16 percent of Browse and lowering its stake to 30 percent, Citigroup Inc. said Jan. 27.
Chief Executive Officer Peter Coleman said in August that Woodside may sell stakes in its Browse and Pluto LNG ventures in Western Australia to help fund the developments. Browse may cost $36 billion to build, compared with an earlier estimate of $30 billion, Credit Suisse said in November.
Woodside, Australia’s second-largest oil producer, and CPC reached an initial accord in 2007 for the sale of as much as 3 million metric tons of LNG annually. CPC said in January 2010 that it wanted to acquire as much as 10 percent of the project.
The Australian energy company may delay a final investment decision on Browse until 2013 as costs to develop projects in Australia climb, Woodside said in December. Chevron Corp. (CVX), Royal Dutch Shell Plc, BP Plc and BHP Billiton Ltd. also hold stakes in the Browse development.
Woodside said last month it intends to remain operator of the venture.
To contact the reporters on this story: Yu-Huay Sun in Taipei at ysun7@bloomberg.net; Ichiro Suzuki in Tokyo at isuzuki@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Amit Prakash at aprakash1@bloomberg.net
Rate this Page