AWE Sells 11.25% Stake in BassGas to India's HPCL Affiliate

AWE Limited on Tuesday announced the completion of $86 million sale of an 11.25% interest in T/L1 (BassGas infrastructure & Yolla field) and a 9.75% interest in T/18P (Trefoil field) to Prize Petroleum Company Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of Indian state owned energy firm Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited.

The effective date for the sale is July 1, 2013. All joint venture and government approvals for this transaction have been received and AWE now holds 35% in T/L1 (BassGas/Yolla) and 35% in T/18P (Trefoil), AWE said.

Preparations are well underway for the final two stages of the BassGas Mid Life Enhancement (MLE) project with the gas compression and condensate pumping modules lifts scheduled for late 2014, and the drilling of two development wells in early 2015.

When finished, the company expects gross production from BassGas to increase to between 60 and 70 TJ per day, up from the 40 TJ per day average achieved over the September quarter.

The BassGas project consists of an offshore wellhead platform connected by pipeline to the gas processing facility at Lang Lang, Victoria.  Gas is currently produced from two wells, Yolla-3 and Yolla-4. The offshore facilities have been designed to incorporate additional production wells from the Yolla field and also to tie-in other gas discoveries in the region. 

The BassGas Mid Life Enhancement Project (MLE) commenced in 2011.