Arrow Energy Predicts Consolidation In Coal Seam Gas Projects  

Bloomberg reports that consolidation of LNG projects using coal seam gas in Australia is likely in the near future - Shell Partner Sees Australian Project Consolidation.

Australia’s emerging coal-seam gas industry is headed for consolidation as rivals seek the most profitable way of developing ventures that liquefy the fuel for export, Royal Dutch Shell Plc’s local partner said.

Shell and Arrow Energy Ltd. expect to announce this quarter or next how they intend to participate in the reorganization of rival projects planned by companies including BG Group Plc and ConocoPhillips, said Shaun Scott, chief executive officer of Brisbane-based Arrow’s Australian unit.

Growth in non-conventional gas such as coal-seam methane and shale gas will help it overtake coal as the “dominant” fuel in the next few years, Schlumberger Ltd., the world’s largest oilfield services provider, said in October. Shell last year agreed to buy 30 percent of the Australian permit areas of Arrow, which has an accord to sell fuel for a small LNG project planned by Liquefied Natural Gas Ltd.

Corporate consolidation in the coal-seam gas industry is “broadly finished” and companies are now moving toward “a project consolidation phase,” Scott told reporters in Brisbane today. “Everyone sees that as an inevitable process.”