Rick Wilkinson
OGJ Correspondent
MELBOURNE, Mar. 22 -- Arrow Energy Ltd.’s board accepted an increased offer from Shell Energy Holdings Australia Ltd. and PetroChina International Investment Co. Ltd. to acquire Arrow.
The latest bid was $3.4 billion (Aus.), up 6% from an earlier offer Shell and PetroChina made for the Brisbane coal seam methane gas (CSM) company. The move marks another step by the majors into the CSM-LNG projects in Queensland (OGJ, Mar. 15, 2010, Newsletter).
The offer remains subject to approval of Arrow shareholders during a July meeting. If approved by them and Australia’s Foreign Investment Review Board, the resulting joint venture, CS CSG (Australia) Pty Ltd., would be owned 50:50 by Shell and PetroChina.
Arrow’s main Australian assets, Surat-Bowen basin coal seam gas and its power business, are being sold to CS CSG. That joint venture also will hold Shell’s proposed Curtis Island CSG-LNG plant. Meanwhile, a new company called Dart Energy is being formed to hold most of the demerged international assets of Arrow plus some of Arrow’s shareholdings in other Australian companies and Arrow’s $45 million cash.