Rick Wilkinson
OGJ Correspondent
MELBOURNE, Dec. 7 -- Benaris International has exercised its preemptive right to buy a portion of Woodside Petroleum Ltd.’s 51.55% stake in the Otway gas project in Western Victoria.
Last month Woodside announced the sale of its stake in the project—which includes the Thylacine and Geographe gas fields and onshore processing facilities—to partner Origin Energy Ltd. for $712.5 million (Aus.). However the deal was subject to preemptive rights of the other two members of the joint venture: Benaris and CalEnergy Australia.
CalEnergy declined to take up its rights, but Benaris will take its share to bring its interest in the project to 27.77%.
That leaves Origin with 67.23% after buying the remainder of the stake for a reduced figure of $507.2 million (Aus.).