Deal: Ichthys LNG project financing

Area: E&R

Value: $US20 billion

Key players: The Allen & Overy Tokyo team was led by partner Aled Davies, with counsel Scott Neilson and associate Kazuko Ali. Allen & Overy’s Australian team was led by Sydney partner Chris Rushton with support from Perth-based counsel Goran Galic and senior associate David Christensen.  Allen & Overy's Singapore, Hong Kong, Bangkok, Amsterdam, Paris and Frankfurt offices were also involved in the project.

Deal significance: The $US34 billion Ichthys Project is one of the largest construction projects being undertaken in Australia. The sponsors of the project are Inpex Corporation, Total S.A., Tokyo Gas, Osaka Gas, Chubu Electric Power and Toho Gas.  The joint venture participants and shareholders announced on 18 January that they had finalised the $US20 billion project financing. Aled Davies, the Tokyo-based managing partner who led the A&O team advising Inpex and Total, said: “We are pleased to have been involved in what is a ground-breaking and strategically important project for both Australia and Japan.  This deal will see Australia become the world's leading LNG producer and secure long-term supplies of energy for Japan at an important time post-Fukushima. The structuring and risk allocation of the deal were extremely complicated, involving a team across Asia-Pacific and Europe.”

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The Ichthys LNG project includes the production and processing of gas and field condensate from the Ichthys Field, located approximately 230 kilometres off the coast of WA, and the transportation of processed feed gas from the world's largest offshore installations of their kind through an 889km sub-sea gas pipeline running from the Ichthys Field to Darwin. The Ichthys LNG project is expected to produce 8.4 million tonnes of LNG and 1.6 million tonnes of LPG per annum, along with approximately 100,000 barrels of condensate per day at peak.