Japan's Osaka Gas said on Friday it had agreed to buy a five per cent stake in the Browse gas project offshore Western Australia from BP, strengthening its liquefied natural gas supply portfolio.
The acquisition will be made through Osaka Gas Browse, a company to be jointly owned by Osaka Gas Australia and state-backed Japan Organisation for Metals and Energy Security (JOGMEC), subject to regulatory and joint venture partner approvals, the Japanese utility said in a statement.
Osaka Gas did not disclose the value or terms of the deal.
The Browse project comprises the Brecknock, Calliance and Torosa gas fields in the Browse Basin and is currently in the pre-front-end engineering and design (Pre-FEED) stage.
Operated by Woodside Energy, Browse is Australia's largest undeveloped gas resource that is earmarked as backfill to the North West Shelf LNG facility in Western Australia.
The project is expected to produce about 11 million tonnes of LNG annually.
Osaka Gas expects to secure about 550,000 tonnes per year of LNG through its stake, the utility said.
(Reporting by Yuka Obayashi. Editing by Mark Potter)
