Inpex Enters Offshore Norway
Japan's Inpex said September 15 it has agreed to farm into Lundin Norway-operated licence PL767 in the western Barents Sea offshore Norway, with a 40% interest - marking its debut in the Norwegian upstream, despite the fact that its subsidiary Inpex Norge was established three years ago.
Inpex is acquiring the 40% stake from German joint venture Bayerngas Norge; the latter is merging Europe-wide with UK Centrica's upstream business with both expected to accelerate non-core asset divestments.
PL767 is located in the western Barents Sea some 120km offshore and covers 211 km2 where the water depth ranges from 300 to 400 meters.
Inpex is operator of the $34bn Ichthys land-based LNG project tied into monetising offshore northern Australian gas; it is expected to produce 8.9mn metric tons (mt) of LNG/yr and 1.6mn mt of LPG/yr, plus over 100,000 b/d of condensate at peak; partner Total said in July that Ichthys's start-up is now expected 1Q 2018 which will be over a year behind schedule.
Map credit: Inpex
Mark Smedley