Lean burn as Tokyo Gas signs 20-year Curtis deal  

The SMH has an article on another customer signing up for LNG from Australian coal seam gas developments - Lean burn as Tokyo Gas signs 20-year Curtis deal.

JAPAN has signalled its willingness to buy liquefied natural gas converted from coal seam methane, with Tokyo Gas becoming the first Japanese utility to sign a deal to receive the unconventional gas.

In a further sign that energy-hungry countries will increasingly accept the lean gas, Tokyo Gas has announced a deal with BG Group for 1.2 million tonnes of LNG a year for 20 years from 2015 from the Queensland Curtis project.

The deal also continues the trend by international LNG buyers to acquire equity in Australian projects. Tokyo Gas will receive a 1.25 per cent interest in reserves and resources of some tenements in Queensland's Surat Basin and a 2.5 per cent equity interest in BG's second processing train. No value was put on the transaction but some estimates value it at between $13 billion and $26 billion.

The deal will be a headache for Woodside's Don Voelte, an ardent critic of east-coast coal seam gas projects. He has said the coal seam gas industry in Australia will stall because buyers of liquefied natural gas, such as Japan and Korea, will not accept the lower calorific value of gas converted from coal seam methane.

The deal also trumps BG's rival Santos, which UBS last week said had narrowed the list of potential customers from its neighbouring Curtis Island project to Tokyo Electric Power, Tokyo Gas and Korea Gas.