Santos chief executive Kevin Gallagher will lead a small entourage of executives to Japan this weekend, when a series of meetings will be held with some of the nation’s biggest energy companies.
DataRoom understands that talks will be held with JX Nippon Oil & Gas, which owns just under 5 per cent of PNG LNG, along with two major trading houses in Marubeni and Sojitz.
After spending several days at the APPEA oil and gas conference in Brisbane, Mr Gallagher will fly to Tokyo flanked by chief commercial officer Anthony Neilson and Brett Woods, its president for midstream and clean fuels.
With Santos catapulting into a major international energy player after sealing its $21bn Oil Search deal, the trip is primarily seen as a chance to press the flesh in person after several years of lockdown constraints.
Sources say that, from the Japanese side, companies are expected to raise their interest in PNG LNG, the Port Moresby gas export plant, where Santos now owns a 42.5 per cent stake after clinching the Oil Search deal.
Santos has been tipped for more than $4bn of equity selldowns to cash in on booming energy markets while also trimming its own capital outlay as projects move to the drilling and production stage.
While no deals are imminent, several of the Japanese utilities are thought to be interested in snapping up a stake in PNG LNG should Santos choose to sell as much as 10 per cent of the project to bring its ownership in line with operator ExxonMobil. JERA has also been linked as an interested party should a sale occur.
The impetus for Japan to secure a greater foothold in projects like PNG LNG has been underlined by a supply squeeze that has created heightened energy security fears.
Japan relied on Moscow for a chunk of its LNG supplies, but volumes from Russian producers have been curtailed in the market through sanctions following its invasion of Ukraine.
Japan is also moving to lift LNG investments, providing “risk money” through the state-run Jogmec for existing gas export projects that can lift supplies over the next few years.
Mr Gallagher is also set to appear at the World Gas Conference in Daegu in South Korea on Tuesday discussing whether momentum from the Glasgow climate summit has faded due to energy security concerns.
Woodside CEO Meg O’Neill will also make a conference appearance to discuss a viable energy transition, with its BHP Petroleum merger set to get the green light at its Thursday AGM.
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