Rick Wilkinson
OGJ Correspondent
MELBOURNE, Oct. 26 -- Santos Ltd., Adelaide, signed a deal with the south Australian Cooper basin joint venture to supply 750 petajoules of gas from the Cooper basin fields to the proposed Santos-operated LNG project in Gladstone, Queensland.
Venture partners are Santos, 66.6%, Beach Energy, 20.21%, and Origin Energy, 13.19%.
The agreement is for supply of uncontracted gas in the south Australian fields under an oil-linked pricing structure via pipeline across Queensland to the existing Wallumbilla hub west of Brisbane and then up to the Gladstone plant beginning in 2014.
The gas would be supplied over a 15-year period and the agreement is conditional on a final investment decision for the second train in Santos’ Gladstone plant.
Reg Nelson, Beach managing director, said if finalized, the deal will set the foundation for ongoing growth and optimization of Cooper basin for 20 years and more.
The agreement opens an export channel for Cooper gas and also provides the proposed Gladstone project with conventional gas as well as the planned supply from coal-seam gas fields in the Surat and Bowen basins.
The conventional gas will also boost the calorific value of the LNG produced at the plant as it is higher than LNG sourced from CSG.