Woodside Petroleum, Australia’s biggest independent gas and oil producer, launched a surprise A$2.5 billion ($1.96 billion) share sale on Wednesday to raise funds to take control of and develop a long-stranded gas field off the country’s west coast.
Woodside said on Wednesday it had agreed to pay $744 million for ExxonMobil Corp’s 50-percent stake in the Scarborough field, a project that has been stuck on the drawing board for nearly 40 years due to factors including its remote, deepwater location.
The company said that soaring international demand for gas meant the time was right for the acquisition, with the field expected to feed an expansion of its Pluto liquefied natural gas (LNG) plant in the state of Western Australia.
“The difference between supply and demand is opening up very, very quickly,” said Woodside Chief Executive Peter Coleman, adding that Chinese appetite for LNG was growing rapidly.
But some analysts underscored the challenges of developing the field, with Ben Wilson at Royal Bank of Canada describing the site in a broker note as “deep, distant, dirty and dry”.
The move puts Woodside, seen as short on near-term growth prospects, in control of Scarborough with a 75-percent stake, working with BHP Billiton on a project now estimated to cost up to $9.7 billion.
Source：Reuters
