World's Energy

NEW YORK, September 8 (RIA Novosti) - ConocoPhillips, the second-largest U.S. oil refiner, will pay $8 billion to Origin Energy Ltd., Australia's largest coal-seam gas producer, to set up a joint venture, the U.S. company said on its website. The equally shared JV to be located in Queensland, northeast Australia, will liquefy coal-seam gas, mainly for export to Asia. ConocoPhillips will lead the marketing part of the venture for the first 10 years. "With this investment, ConocoPhillips has gained access to the leading coal bed methane resource in Australia, comprising 8.1 million net acres. Moreover, the company has enhanced its LNG [liquefied natural gas] position with the creation of an additional Australian LNG hub serving Asia-Pacific markets," said Jim Mulva, ConocoPhillips' chairman and CEO. After the Australian company agreed to the proposal - analysts say to offset an $11 billion bid from BG Group of Britain - the Origin Energy' shares gained nearly 28% on Monday. The JV will initially have two LNG processing trains with a capacity of about 3.5 million metric tons a year each with production launched in 2014. Then the companies aim to build another two or more trains.