Regional LNG: Release: Osaka Gas: Acquisition of equity interest in Qalhat LNG

May 24, 2006 ? Itochu Corporation, Mitsubishi Corporation, and Osaka Gas reached an agreement today with the Government of the Sultanate of Oman for their partial equity acquisition of Qalhat LNG S.A.O.C.. According to the Share Transfer Agreement which was signed today by the parties concerned, each of the three companies will acquire 3% of the equity shareholding of Qalhat LNG.

Qalhat LNG, a company incorporated in Muscat , Oman , is the promoter of the second LNG project in Oman , following the Oman LNG project in the country. With the production capacity of 3.3 million tons of LNG per annum, the company has shipped LNG since December 2005. The three Japanese companies have already entered into respective long-term LNG supply agreements with Oman.

With the acquisition of equity interests in Qalhat LNG, the three Japanese companies expect that they would be positioned to build stronger relationship with Oman, thereby strengthening their business involvement in the LNG upstream business and subsequently, to achieving greater stability in their LNG procurement activities. (end of release)

Long-term LNG supply contracts with Oman

Seller	Buyer	Delivery since	Volume (tons p.a.)	Contract term
Qalhat LNG	Mitsubishi Corp.	2006	800,000	15 years (5 year extension optional)
	Osaka Gas	2009	800,000	17 years
Oman LNG	Osaka Gas	2000	660,000	25 years
	Itochu Corp.	2006	700,000	20 years