France-based integrated energy company TotalEnergies and Japanese oil and gas company INPEX have agreed to acquire 100% interest in the AC-RL7 permit, located offshore Australia.
TotalEnergies and INPEX will acquire the interest from PTTEP Australasia, a subsidiary of Thailand’s national petroleum exploration and production company, PTTEP.
Under the terms of the agreement, TotalEnergies will obtain a 26% stake, and INPEX will acquire the remaining 74% stake and assume operatorship of the AC-RL7 permit, subject to approval by the relevant authorities.
TotalEnergies Asia-Pacific exploration and production senior vice president Julien Pouget said: “Thanks to this joint acquisition together with our partner INPEX, we are pleased to secure additional resources for the future supply of the Ichthys LNG plant.
“These resources will help us to meet the long-term demand of our customers in the Asia-Pacific region for LNG.
“This acquisition is also supported by the efforts undertaken with INPEX in the Bonaparte CCS Assessment joint venture to appraise the area’s potential for geological storage of CO2 to abate CO2 emissions from the Ichthys LNG project.”
The AC-RL7 permit, which covers around 418km2 area in the Timor Sea, is located nearly 250km northeast of the Ichthys offshore facilities.
It includes the Cash and Maple gas and condensate fields, which were discovered in 2002 and 1989, respectively, and subsequently appraised by several wells.
TotalEnergies said that the development of oil and gas fields in the permit would enable a long-term supply of the Ichthys LNG natural gas liquefaction plant.
The Ichthys LNG project is a joint venture between TotalEnergies, INPEX and other shareholders, including CPC, JERA, Kansai Electric Power, Osaka Gas, and Toho Gas.
