Photo by: Bloomberg
PERTH (miningweekly.com) – ASX-listed APA Group will spend some A$270-million to purchase and upgrade the Orbost gas processing plant from fellow-listed Cooper Energy.
APA earlier this year flagged the acquisition of Cooper Energy’s Orbost gas processing plant to process the natural gas from the Sole gasfield, on the Victorian coast.
The plant will be connected to Cooper Energy’s Sole gasfield via a subsea pipeline and control umbilical that will be constructed by Cooper Energy, with APA saying on Thursday that there was also scope within the agreement for the plant to process gas from Cooper Energy’s nearby Manta gasfield.
APA MD Mick McCormack told shareholders that the company was pleased to have reached a binding agreement with Cooper Energy, at a time when there were calls for increased gas supply into the east coast gas market.
Cooper Energy MD David Maxwell told shareholders that the transaction represented a win-win for both companies, and established a sound basis for a mutually beneficial long-term relationship that will extend beyond the Sole project, to include the second phase of the company’s Gippsland gas development.
The Sole project is expected to bring some 249 PJ of gas to south-east Australia, with the major share of the production already contracted to portfolio buyers.