Development Plan Finalised: 2 Well Development Offering Reserve Gains & Enhanced Redundancy
Monday 27 February 2017
Cooper Energy announces the Sole Gas Project has now advanced to the final stage before commitment. The finalisation of the field development plan, signing of heads of agreement with APA to own and operate the Orbost Gas Plant and achievement of gas contracting targets enable the final financing process to commence with a view to project sanction in March 2017.
The Sole gas project involves the development of the Sole field in the Gippsland Basin, offshore Victoria (refer figures 1 & 2) to supply approximately 25 PJ of gas per annum from 2019. Cooper Energy is the 100% interest holder in Sole.
Quote from Managing Director: David Maxwell
“Today’s announcement is the product of an intense effort since October to market additional gas acquired from Santos, identify the most value accretive project ownership and the optimal development plan.
“We now have the project and the commercial relationships that reduce technical and
construction risks substantially, reduces the capital requirement for Cooper Energy, increases gas resources and offers the potential for increased production in the all-important early years.
“We are delighted at the opportunity to join with APA in developing our Gippsland Basin gas as provided for by the Heads of Agreement announced today. Their involvement will strengthen the project further and enable Cooper Energy to concentrate our efforts on exploration, upstream development and production and gas commercialisation.
“The most significant outcome has been for our shareholders. We are now approaching
project go-ahead having retained 100% of our upstream equity in the project, and thereby preserved maximum exposure to the value uplift that typically occurs between project sanction and first gas.
We now move into completing the final phase of the funding process, the last step in enabling the project’s development.”