Inpex exercises pre-emptive rights to buy JERA's stake in Ichthys LNG project

By Yuka Obayashi

TOKYO, Sept 25 (Reuters) - Japan's biggest oil and gas explorer, Inpex said on Friday it had exercised its pre-emptive rights to buy a 0.735% stake in its Ichthys liquefied natural gas project in Australia from JERA, blocking a deal agreed with MidOcean Energy.

A flagship project for Inpex, Ichthys began production in 2018, turning out LNG, condensate and liquefied petroleum gas from gas sources offshore western Australia, with annual LNG production capacity of 9.3 million metric tons.

Inpex said it had exercised its pre-emptive rights under the project's joint operating and shareholders' pacts, as the deal aligns with its long-term strategy to expand upstream gas assets and would boost energy security in Japan and the Asia-Pacific.

The terms of the deal were not disclosed. The acquisition will increase Inpex's interest in the project to 68.555%.

In a statement, JERA, Japan's biggest power generator, said it was now selling its entire project stake of 0.735% to Inpex after the exercise of the pre-emptive rights.

In March, the company had said it would sell its Ichthys stake to MidOcean Energy, an LNG company backed by US energy-focused private equity firm EIG.

JERA, jointly owned by Tokyo Electric Power and Chubu Electric Power, said its plan to sell its 0.417% interest in the Chevron‑operated Gorgon project to MidOcean Energy remained unchanged.

Completion of the deal is subject to conditions such as regulatory approvals from Australian authorities, Inpex added in its statement, with the transaction set to have minimal impact on its consolidated financial results.

(Reporting by Yuka Obayashi; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)