Inpex expands acreage offshore Australia

Japan’s exploration and production giant Inpex has been awarded an exploration permit for the WA-533-P block off the northern coast of Western Australia. 

Inpex’s unit, Inpex Browse will hold a 100 percent participating interest and will be the operator of the block covering a surface area of 12,402 km², in water depths ranging from 50 to 600 meters.

The Block lies on an offshore extension of the onshore Canning Basin in Western Australia where oil and gas fields have been discovered and developed, Inpex said in its statement.

With the addition of WA-533-P block, Inpex holds 22 offshore exploration blocks in Australia.

The company is developing its Ichthys LNG project near Darwin, Northern Territory, and recently said it is nearing the start of production from the wellhead before the end of this month.

The LNG project is a joint venture between Inpex, Total, CPC Corporation Taiwan and the Australian units of Tokyo Gas, Osaka Gas, Kansai Electric Power, JERA and Toho Gas.

When fully operational it will have the capacity to produce up to 8.9 million tons per annum of LNG, 1.65 million tons per annum of liquefied petroleum gas 100,000 barrels of condensate a day (at peak).

LNG World News Staff