Gathering In
KOGAS announced on December 26 that the company began collecting about US$24 million from investment in the GLNG (Gladstone Liquefied Natural Gas) project in Australia.
The GLNG project is to develop a gas field on a coal bed in Queensland, Australia and produce and export liquefied natural gas (LNG). KOGAS signed a purchase contract for a 15% stake in 2010 and was investing approximately US$4 billion as of the end of last year.
According to KOGAS, the company suffered difficulties such as low profitability in the GLNG project and a delay in the collection of investment funds due to the deterioration of external conditions including prolonged low oil prices and the Australian government's LNG export restriction policy. However, this year, the project recorded production of 89 LNG cargos (about 5.52 million tons, 83% for KOGAS) and sales of 2.4 trillion won or US$2.1 billion (365.2 billion won or US$328 million for KOGAS), generating a net cash flow for the first time since the start of the project.
Moreover, with an increase in LNG production and a recovery in international oil prices, the company is projected to generate an operating profit of about 260 billion won (US$234 million) in 2018, recouping upwards of US$100 million. Thus KOGAS is looking forward to a spike in the profitability of the project in the future.