MEO Australia says Tassie Shoal LNG may cost $4 billion less than alternatives
Sydney (Platts)--15Nov2012/328 am EST/828 GMT
MEO Australia's proposed Tassie Shoal LNG project would cost up to $4
billion less than a similar-sized onshore or floating LNG development, the
company said Thursday.
According to a cost estimate by engineering companies WorleyParsons and
Arup, with input from APCI, a 3 million mt/year LNG project at Tassie Shoal
LNG would cost $2 billion, including a contingency of 25%. An incremental
investment of $220 million, or 11%, would be required to increase nameplate
capacity by 30%, to 4 million mt/year, MEO said in a statement.
The company estimated that, when scaled to a 3.6 million mt/year
capacity for comparison with the nearby Prelude FLNG project, the Tassie
Shoal project held a capital cost of advantage of around $2 billion to $4
billion compared with onshore and FLNG alternatives.
"Additional activities to mature the engineering and cost estimates have
been identified and will proceed commensurately with the commercial
development of the project," MEO said.
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MEO holds 100% of the Tassie Shoal LNG project, which it plans to
develop to commercialize its own gas, as well as stranded resources held by
other companies around northwestern Australia. The project is adjacent to
MEO's 50%-held Blackwood and Heron discoveries in the NT/P68 exploration
permit, and about 400 km (248 miles) from MEO's wholly-owned WA-454P permit,
where it is seeking farm-in partners.
MEO has already been granted Australian federal government environmental
approvals for an LNG plant to be located at Tassie Shoal. The approval was
first granted in 2004, but was reviewed and renewed in 2012.
The proposal also has "major project facilitation" status, conferred on
it by the federal government's Department of Infrastructure and Transport.
--Christine Forster, christine_forster@platts.com
--Edited by Robert DiNardo, robert_dinardo@platts.com