ADELAIDE -(Dow Jones)- Origin Energy Ltd. (ORG.AU) is willing to sell more equity in an Australian gas-export venture supplying customers in China and Japan, as it works toward tying down financing for an expansion that will push the cost of the development as high as US$20 billion.

"Certainly we'd contemplate some further dilution over the current" 37.5% interest that Origin owns in the Australia Pacific LNG project, Chief Executive Grant King told Dow Jones Newswires on the sidelines of a conference here.

Any decision on an equity selldown is unlikely before the company decides whether to invest in a second liquefied natural gas, or LNG, processing unit at the plant being built at the port of Gladstone in Queensland state, he said.

"We've not set a specific target," Mr. King added.

Origin and partners ConocoPhillips (COP) and China Petrochemical Corp., known as Sinopec, are in the early stages of building the Australia Pacific LNG project that will produce as much as 8.6 million metric tons of LNG at its peak.

-By David Winning, of Dow Jones Newswires; +61-2-82724688; david.winning@dowjones.com