Japex joins gas project

Japex joins gas project

TOKYO (Reuter): Japan Petroleum Exploration Co Ltd (Japex) said yesterday that it will invest roughly US$80 million in a project to explore for and produce liquefied natural gas (LNG) on Malaysia's Kalimantan island.

The project is located in Sarawak state and is designed to produce 6.8 million tons of LNG a year after the start of commercial production beginning in 2001.

A spokesman for the semi-governmental firm said Japex will probably ship about 300,000 tons of LNG a year to Japan.

Japex's upstream participation will include taking a 10 percent equity interest in Occidental Oil and Gas (Malaysia) LLC, a subsidiary of U.S. Occidental Petroleum Corp, and helping to foot exploration costs for the project.

Occidental is the operator for the project.

The cost for the upstream participation is expected to be about $60 million, the spokesman said.