Schwarzenegger "very positive" on BHP Billiton LNG plan: Howard

Sydney (Platts)--3Jun2004

Australian Prime Minister John Howard and California Governor Arnold
Schwarzenegger had a "very positive meeting" Wednesday to discuss BHP
Billiton's proposed floating LNG terminal off the West Coast state, Howard
told a press conference in Los Angeles. "The governor expressed very positive
things, said very positive things about the BHP Billiton proposal," Howard
said. "There is clearly a desire to establish a linkage with an Australian
supplier, if other difficulties can be dealt with, and we are confident they
can." He said the major issues were environmental concerns and the lack of
understanding of LNG on the US West Coast. Howard added that Australia offered
California "long-term, secure, price competitive supplies of LNG". He said BHP
Billiton's proposal would establish a dedicated source of supply to
California, offering an advantage over other sources domestically or in
Mexico. "The governor himself expressed a keen desire to see that our
negotiations were brought to a successful conclusion," Howard said.

"I would hope that we can see some kind of final decision towards the end of
this year, perhaps slipping into the early part of next year," he added. The
meeting in Los Angeles was also attended by BHP Billiton chairman Don Argus
and BHP Billiton Petroleum CEO Philip Aiken. "This is a private enterprise
project," Howard said, "but I wanted to identify the government very strongly
with the proposal." Australian Industry Minister Ian Macfarlane is scheduled
to visit Los Angeles next week for a follow-up meeting with state energy
officials. BHP Billiton unveiled a proposal for the floating LNG storage and
regasification facility off California in August 2003. The deep water facility
would be moored 20 miles (32 km) from Oxnard off the Ventura County coast and
would be a receiving point for shipments of California-bound LNG, which would
then be piped ashore. The facility's expected average send-out would be around
800-mil cu ft/day or almost 15% of California's daily requirements.

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