Santos' Crown Gas Could Feed LNG Projects

Santos Ltd says its Crown gas prospect in Western Australia's Browse Basin could be large and could be fed into major liquefied natural gas (LNG) projects in the area.

The liquids-rich prospect is situated offshore very near the Ichthys and Prelude gas fields, which are poised to be processed through the world's first major floating LNG vessel.

Crown also is not far from Browse gas fields.

Santos chief executive David Knox told a teleconference on Friday that Crown could play a role in any of these major projects if it turns out to hold as much gas as hoped.

Also, if exploration drilling at Crown in 2012 proved successful, the prospect could "unlock" the potential of several of Santos' other targets in the area, Mr Knox said.

"We're talking very significant volumes of gas - LNG scale volumes of gas if this is successful," he told reporters.

"It's between two important LNG projects, the Browse project and the now-sanctioned Ichthys project, and, of course Prelude is very close as well.

"So, it's got a fantastic street address and if it comes in, it's going to be a very interesting piece of acreage for us in the future."

The company in November said there was potential for Crown and other nearby Santos-operated prospects to be developed on a stand-alone basis.

Source: AAP