Santos Ltd has signed an agreement to supply conventional natural gas from its interests in the Cooper Basin to its proposed joint venture in Queensland, the Gladstone Liquefied Natural Gas (GLNG) plant. The joint venture is owned by Santos, Petronas from Malaysia and Total from France.
Santos and its joint venture partners received environmental approval for the GLNG plant from the Australian Government on Friday. The company said on Monday that it would supply 750 petajoules of gas over 15 years from Santos' un-contracted Cooper Basin P2 reserves.
The supply would begin in 2014 and the price of the gas would be linked to crude oil prices as per Santos Chief Executive Officer David Knox. The agreement would help in opening an export channel for Cooper gas and accelerate its monetisation.
Mr Knox also said that the oil linked pricing will underwrite future investment in the Cooper Basin and unlock the potential of the Basin's remaining substantial resources. Santos' partners in the South Australian Cooper Basin joint venture include Beach Energy and Origin Energy.