By Josh Lewis & news wires
20 November 2012 02:32 GMT
"There is no rush for us to enter an FID, and we'll time this with local market considerations and potentially combine with third parties," the Australian newspaper cited Shell oil and gas production chief Andrew Brown saying.
Shell and joint venture partner PetroChina are proposing to build an LNG plant on Curtis Island with an initial two-train facility, each with a capacity of up to 4.6 million tonnes per annum of LNG, expandable up to 18 million tpa.
The project will be fed by onshore coalbed methane gas fields in Queensland’s onshore Bowen and Surat basins.
However, there are already three other LNG projects currently under construction on Curtis Island competing for skilled labour and equipment, while a strong Australian dollar is also driving up prices.
"With three projects under construction at Curtis Island, it makes sense to think about the best value solution for Shell and get the timing right," Brown was quoted telling investors at a briefing in New York.
The comments from Brown echo those of Shell’s chief financial officer Simon Henry who said earlier this month the company did not plan to rush into making final investment decisions on any of the three Australian LNG projects it currently holds stakes in awaiting construction.
As previously reported by Upstream, Shell and PetroChina have also delayed bidding for the giant onshore LNG turnkey contract for the Arrow LNG project.
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Wonder what 'alternate options amid rising costs' they are considering??
Hey, didn't Shell's JV partner Petromin recently receive $6 Bill credit from the pappy of Shell's JV Partner PetroChina??