Page 11 - GLNG Week 06 2021

GLNG ASIA GLNG

Inpex looks ahead to 2021

after “tough” 2020

PERFORMANCE JAPANESE developer Inpex is pinning its hopes posting a JPY100bn ($954.6mn) net profit as well
on a sustained oil price rally this year after post- as a 14.5% jump in revenue in 2021 to JPY883bn
ing its first net loss in more than a decade last ($8.43bn) based on its oil price projection. Oil
year. sales volumes, meanwhile, are projected to
The company, which is the East Asian shrink 4.7% this year, with gas sales predicted to
country’s largest upstream player, recorded a rise by 3%.
The company recorded JPY111.7bn ($1.07bn) loss in 2020 on the back of The developer is radically rethinking its
a JPY129bn (1.23bn) a 34% year-on-year drop in revenue to JPY771bn upstream positioning, following Japanese Prime
write-down on its stake ($7.36bn). It was the company’s first loss since it Minister Yoshihide Suga’s pledge to make the
in the Prelude FLNG was founded through the 2008 merger of Inpex, country carbon-neutral by 2050. The company
project. Teikoku Oil and Inpex Holdings. has announced its own net-zero goal by 2050,
Managing executive officer Daisuke Yamada with an increased focus on renewable and hydro-
blamed last year’s oil price crash for 90% of the gen energy to make this possible.
company’s lost revenue, noting that the Brent As such, Inpex has ditched plans to bolster its
benchmark average had slumped 33% y/y to oil and gas production from 580,000 barrels of
$43.21 per barrel. He added: “It was a very tough oil equivalent per day to 1mn boepd, with Inpex
year.” President Takayuki Ueda describing the target as
Indeed, the company recorded a JPY189.9bn no longer being valid.
($1.81bn) impairment loss on its oil and gas “As for LNG, we still believe demand will
assets, including a JPY129bn (1.23bn) write- rise in the mid and long term, mainly in Asia,
down on its stake in the Prelude floating LNG and we will keep investing in new projects,”
(FLNG) project offshore Western Australia. Ueda told reporters in late January. “As for
Inpex, however, expects Brent to rebound oil, we would expand assets only near existing
this year to $53 per barrel, paving the way for a projects … instead of starting new projects
return to profitability. The company anticipates from scratch.”™

AUSTRAL ASIA

PNG, Total sign LNG agreement

POLICY THE Papua New Guinea (PNG) government has the developers had aimed to save $2-3bn in
signed a fiscal stability agreement with French construction costs thanks to the sharing of
major Total for the Papua LNG project. infrastructure.
PNG Prime Minister James Marape said on This week’s agreement, however, will see the
February 9 that the agreement adhered to project Total-led consortium proceed with the develop-
terms agreed by Total with the country’s previ- ment of Papua LNG’s Elk-Antelope gas discov-
ous administration in April 2019. ery alone.
Marape entered office in May 2019, follow- Marape said: “It [the agreement] demon-
ing the resignation of then prime minister Peter strates Papua New Guinea’s commitment to
O’Neill, promising a broad spectrum review of the Papua LNG Project and gives comfort and
the country’s oil and gas agreements. encouragement to the developers to progress the
While Total’s agreement was eventually project.”
approved in September of that year, talks with Total CEO Patrick Pouyanne, meanwhile,
Papua LNG partners ExxonMobil and Oil described the project as a “priority for the group”,
Search over the development of the separate noting he hoped to reach a final investment deci-
P’nyang project eventually broke down. sion (FID) in 2022.
The three companies had initially intended Credit Suisse analyst Saul Kavonic raised
to double the country’s LNG exports to 16mn some concerns about this timeline, however,
tonnes per year (tpy) through a two-part initi- telling Reuters that while the fiscal stability
ative involving a three-train expansion of the agreement would lower the risk of tenure over
ExxonMobil-led PNG LNG terminal at Caution gas field licences that had been due to expire this
Bay near Port Moresby. year, there was “still a long way to go”.
P’nyang, located in the Western High- He pointed out that “tough commercial nego-
lands, was supposed to underpin one of the tiations” lay ahead for Total and ExxonMobil as
trains, while the other two were to use gas the respective operators of the upstream and
from Papua LNG. By linking the two projects, downstream components.™

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