OREANDA-NEWS. December 13, 2011. Toyota Tsusho Corporation (hereinafter "TTC"; head office: Nagoya, Japan; president: Jun Karube), signed the CBM(*1) Sales Agreement with Walloons Coal Seam Gas Company Pty Ltd, a subsidiary of BG Group plc. (hereinafter "BG Group"; head office: United Kingdom), the ultimate owner of the Queensland Curtis LNG Project (hereinafter "QC LNG"). TTC will supply CBM over 20 years from ATP651P block (*2) (TTC has 15% equity), which can serve as feed gas for QC LNG.

QC LNG is the world’s first CBM based LNG Project and this is the first CBM long term sales agreement for a Japanese company.

TTC also made the decision to engage in this CBM development program at ATP651P with about AUD 300 Mil investment including the acquisition price.

QC LNG is expected to begin LNG production in 2014 and had signed LNG long term sales agreements with a Japanese power company and a gas company. TTC believes, by developing ATP651P, this CBM Sales Agreement could contribute to the procurement of a stable and flexible LNG supply for Japan.

 TTC considers Australia to be one of the most important countries for upstream investments in the gas value chain and has been acquiring conventional and unconventional gas exploration, development, and production rights. TTC’s strategy calls for proactive investments in the building of the LNG value chain, and also further investments towards gas related projects for the Australian domestic market, where steady growth in gas demand is expected in the future. This agreement and the decision to engage in the development program are consistent with this strategy.