May 30, 2024 [Reuters]- Woodside will receive $1 bln in funding for its flagship Scarborough liquefied natural gas project from state-owned Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC.UL), the Australian energy giant said on Thursday.

Scarborough, a $12 billion LNG project in Western Australia, has recently been under the lens of Asian buyers who are looking to secure long-term supply of natural gas.

Woodside in February agreed to a $1.4 billion deal to sell a 15.1% stake in the project to Japan’s biggest power producer, Jera Co.

Japan is the world’s second largest LNG buyer and is currently moving to shore up more gas after the energy crisis in 2022 which forced the country’s government to push firms to invest in projects.

Australia’s government in May put out a strategy to boost natural gas development despite the country’s commitment to net zero carbon emissions by 2050, indicating soaring demand from Asian partners.

The funding comes at a time when the industry executives of the natural gas sector in Australia have been calling for more measures to bring back an investment environment which has been damaged by a slew of state interventions in a bid to curb rising energy prices and boost domestic supply.

Woodside’s flagship project is set to produce as much as 8 million tons a year of the fuel and has recently been a target for climate activists amid the world’s shift to cleaner forms of energy.

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