AWE has completed the sale of a portion of its interests in the offshore Tasmanian offshore Bass Basin gas-condensate permits T/L1 and T/18P that contain the Yolla and Trefoil fields.
AWE has sold 11.25% of Yolla production licence T/L1 and 9.75% of Trefoil exploration permit T/18P to Hindustan Petroleum Corp. subsidiary Prize Petroleum for $85 million (Aus.).
T/L1 also contains associated production infrastructure of the Origin Energy-operated BassGas gas-condensate development that pipes gas to eastern Victoria.
AWE received an initial deposit of $16 million when making the deal and a further $64 million this week on completion of the sale.
The company will get a further $2.5 million when the BassGas midlife enhancement project is completed and another $2.5 million if the costs of the enhancement do not exceed an agreed threshold.
AWE has retained 35% interests in both permits which enables the company to retain a high level of control over major investment decisions.
The final two stages of the BassGas midlife enhancement will begin before yearend when gas compression and condensate pumping modules are lifted on to the Yolla production platform. Two more development wells on the Yolla field will be drilled early in 2015.
The anticipated gross production from BassGas should increase to 60-70 terajoules/day of gas—up from the 40 tj/day average achieved in this year’s third quarter.
Other interest holders in BassGas (T/L-1) are Origin with 42.5% and Toyota Tsusho Gas with 11.24%.
Trefoil field in T/18P is another liquids-rich gas field with development timed for the end of this decade when production from Yolla is expected to decline.
AWE will move to 40% interest in Trefoil by yearend on completion of an unrelated acquisition of 5% interest in T/18P from Drillsearch Energy.