Australia has held preliminary talks with Mexico to supply liquefied natural gas (LNG) in the country's latest pitch to try to find buyers for its huge gas reserves, a Mexican diplomat said on Thursday.
"Australia asked us if want to buy its LNG," said Mexico's ambassador to the Philippines, Enrique Hubbard. "But it is very preliminary talk."
The discussions took place on the sidelines of a meeting in Manila of Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation energy officials, Hubbard said.
He said no volumes or time frames were discussed.
The ambassador said Mexico, a major crude exporter, is struggling to meet domestic petroleum products demand owing to a lack of domestic refining capacity.
Australia, with an estimated 150 trillion cubic feet of proven and probable reserves, is on a big marketing push to sell LNG from projects that are due to start production before the end of the decade.
Like regional rival Indonesia, Australia has been looking beyond traditional buyers in Asia, like Japan and South Korea, to develop fresh markets.
It also has to compete with other expanding LNG suppliers including Malaysia and Russia.
Earlier this year, US oil major ChevronTexaco said it was aiming to build a $650 million offshore LNG terminal in Baja California, Mexico, by 2008, to accept gas from the A$11 billion Gorgon gas development offshore north west Australia.
Comments
Comments are closed.