PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Australian energy company Cooper Energy has completed the sale of the Orbost gas plant to fellow-listed APA Group.
The two companies in June this year struck an agreement under which APA would spend some A$270-million to purchase and upgrade the Orbost gas processing plant, to process natural gas from Cooper Energy’s Sole gasfield, on the Victorian coast.
The agreement also provides for the Orbost gas plant to process gas from Cooper Energy’s adjacent Manga gasfield as well as potentially, other gasfields. The expected total cost of this project would be A$605-million, comprising A$250-million for the onshore project being conducted by APA, and a further A$355-million for the offshore development being conducted by Cooper Energy.
Cooper Energy MD David Maxwell said on Wednesday that the completion of the transaction was of landmark significance for the south-east Australian gas market, and brought Australia’s largest gas infrastructure company to the Gippsland basin, which has been the largest supplier of gas to the region.
“We see future opportunities for the plant beyond Sole, whereby Orbost will be a gas hub for other fields, including our Manta gas resource.”
The Sole project is proceeding on schedule and within budget, and Cooper Energy is expecting commissioning of the project to start in the first quarter of 2019.
Some 25 PJ/y of gas, or four-million barrels of oil equivalent, will be produced from the Sole gasfield, which will be piped to the Orbost gas plant, from where it will be supplied to customers through the Easter gas pipeline.