Cooper Energy has announced that the Casino Henry joint venture comprising Cooper Energy (50 per cent) and Operator, Mitsui E&P Australia (25 per cent) and Peedamullah Petroleum (25 per cent), has signed a new gas sales agreement with Origin Energy.
The new agreement provides for supply from the joint venture to Origin Energy from 1 January 2019 to 1 January 2020 at current market prices. The joint venture has also entered into a new agreement with Lochard Energy for processing at the Iona Gas Plant for a minimum of one year and a maximum of three years to support a smooth transition to the Minerva Gas Plant in due course.
Production from Casino Henry is currently supplied to Origin Energy under a gas sales agreement that expires on 31 December 2018. Cooper Energy Managing Director, David Maxwell, said the new gas sales agreement, which was negotiated after a competitive tender, was the sixth term gas contract Cooper Energy had written in the past three years.
“We are pleased to be contributing to the supply of gas for south-east Australian energy users and expect this contribution will lift in coming years,” Mr Maxwell said.
“We are also planning to increase our investment in bringing more gas to market through further development of the Henry gas field, and in exploration for new gas fields that can be brought online rapidly.
“The joint venture is also looking forward to completing our acquisition of the Minerva Gas Plant in due course, once the Minerva field has ceased production. We foresee the plant playing a key enabling role in Otway Basin gas, not only for Casino Henry but also for other discoveries made in the region.”
As announced to the ASX on 1 May 2018, the Casino Henry joint venture has an agreement with BHP Billiton Petroleum (Victoria) to acquire the Minerva Gas Plant on cessation of its current operations processing gas from the Minerva gas field. The Casino Henry joint venture also holds the adjoining VIC/P44 exploration permit and VIC/RL11 and VIC/RL12 retention licences.
