Oz's Strike Energy Expands to West Coast
Australian east coast focused gas exploration company Strike Energy is expanding its search to the country’s western shores through an acquisition of a 50% interest in a Perth Basin block, Strike said March 28.
The company announced it has signed an agreement with private development and production company Warrego Energy to buy a 50% stake and operatorship of Exploration Permit EP469.
The prospect is top tier and comparable to the recently tested “and history making” Waitsia discovery, which is just 15km away, Strike said.
“Subject to confirmation from additional model calibration, the Kingia-High Cliff sands are believed to be present with thickness and porosity development that is interpreted to be similar in quality to that in the adjacent Waitsia gas discovery,” the company said.
Fellow Australian gas company AWE has recently been the subject of a number of takeover bids with the interest coming due to its stakes in the Waitsia project. The leading bid is from Japanese trading company Mitsui which has an offer price of A$0.95 per share which values AWE at a market capitalisation of A$602mn.
“Initial views of the prospect are that it would be more than sufficient in size to support a stand-alone development,” Strike said. The block is some 300km north of Perth and is proximate to the major Dampier to Bunbury Gas Pipeline which allows a simple and cost-effective path to market for any commercial hydrocarbons, Strike said.
Strike managing director Stuart Nicholls said: “The West Erregulla block (EP469) contains an onshore conventional gas prospect that can utilise existing infrastructure and that is near to end users. This coupled with the huge domestic and export gas demand in Western Australia are the makings of a commercially successful gas project”.
“Strike remains committed to the development plan outlined for the Southern Cooper Basin Gas Project and believes the addition of this opportunity provides the portfolio with further resilience and access to potentially transformational gas supplies in both Eastern and Western Australia,” he added.