Inpex May Locate LNG Plant in Darwin, The Australian Reports

By Dinakar Sethuraman

Aug. 11 (Bloomberg) -- Inpex Holdings Inc. may select Darwin in northern Australia for a $9.5 billion liquefied natural gas export plant, The Australian reported, without saying where it got the information.

Western Australia, an alternative site for Inpex's plant, has delayed a decision on selecting a location for an LNG hub, the report said. The Western Australian government may take another two weeks to select a designated area for all LNG projects in the state.

It may cost Inpex A$700 million ($616 million) more to build a plant in Darwin because it has to build an additional 700 kilometers (435 miles) of pipeline to transport gas from the Browse Basin in Western Australia to the Northern Territory, the report said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Dinakar Sethuraman in Singapore at dinakar@bloomberg.net.