China may announce LNG supply winner soon
Tuesday, May 28 2002 - 11:07 AM WIB
"My understanding is it's a matter of days or a few weeks away," Peter De Wit, director of Asia Pacific operations at Shell Gas & Power, a unit of Royal Dutch/ Shell Group , told Dow Jones Newswires.
"My understanding is they will try to reach a conclusion at the end of May," he added.
De Wit said Australia LNG Pty, has a good chance of securing the contract.
In Mid-May, China issued a tender for the annual supply of 3 million metric tons of LNG to Guangdong province. ALNG is one of the three bidders. Ras Laffan Liquified Natural Gas Co from Qatar and BP Gas Marketing Co from Indonesia are the other bidders.
"The Australia project offers a number of advantages, especially in terms of it being a stable supply source," he said.
Relations between China and Australia are very good, he added.
"We certainly think this Australia project offers substantial benefits for China," De Wit said.
On the possibility that China might split the contract among the bidders, he said anything is possible."
Recent talk both in China and among overseas LNG suppliers has pointed to the possibility of the contract being split.
However, De Wit said China hasn't informed bidders of that possibility and that under the current understanding; the Guangdong terminal will be supplied from one source.
Shell Development Pty., another Shell unit, is a member of a consortium that produces gas from the northwest shelf of Australia - the gas source for the Guangdong terminal.
Other members of the consortium are BHP Petroleum (North West Shelf) Pty., BP Developments Australia Pty., Chevron Australia Pty., Japan Australia LNG Pty., and Woodside Energy Ltd. ALNG is the consortium's marketing arm.
Meanwhile an Indonesian source told Petromindo.Com that there was a possibility China will announce the tender winner soon, but, he said, everything was still uncertain until China say when the announcement will be made. ?It could be this week or next week. No body really knows.? (*)