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Woodside looks for Pluto LNG investors

FINANCE & AUSTRALIAN independent Woodside Energy
INVESTMENT has begun looking for investors to buy into its
planned expansion of the Pluto liquefied natural
gas (LNG) plant as well as its feedstock field.
Woodside said on July 15 that it was looking
to divest an up to 49% stake in Pluto’s second
train, which will process gas from the offshore
Scarborough field. The expansion will modify
the plant’s existing gas processing train in addi- Woodside is reviewing the updated cost esti-
tion to constructing a second facility. mates for Scarborough and Pluto Train 2, which
At the same time, the developer said it was it noted would incorporate value accretive scope
also “testing the market” over the sale of equity changes since November 2019’s cost estimate of
in the gas field and that the sale processes were $11.4bn. This includes greater offshore produc-
aligned with its targeted final investment deci- tion capacity of around 20%, increased onshore
sion (FID) on Scarborough and Pluto Train 2 in processing capacity of Scarborough gas and the
the second half of this year. fact that the project’s contracting strategy targets
Woodside’s acting CEO, Meg O’Neill, said 90% of total project contractor spend structured
the company had made “solid progress” towards as lump sum and fixed rate agreements.
reaching an FID on the expansion project. While the equity sell-down has driven the
The company noted that trunkline bends and 58% collapse last year of the company’s underly-
deepwater buckle arrestors had been delivered, ing profit to $447mn, Woodside enjoyed a much
while five subsea trees were due for delivery to stronger performance in the second quarter of
Australia in the third quarter. It added that long this year.
lead items had been awarded for the floating The company reported that revenue in April-
production unit (FPU), while tenders were being June climbed by 67% year on year and 15% quar-
evaluated for the supply of linepipe for the Scar- ter on quarter to $1.29bn on the back of higher
borough export trunkline. realised oil and gas prices.™

TotalEnergies monetises GLNG’s

downstream infrastructure

FINANCE & GLOBAL Infrastructure Partners (GIP) and Scotia fields in Queensland’s Bowen-Surat
INVESTMENT expanded its presence in Australia’s liquefied Basin.
natural gas (LNG) sector this week after clos- Commenting on the deal, TotalEnergies CFO
ing a deal with French major TotalEnergies that Jean-Pierre Sbraire said: “This monetisation of
monetises the latter’s stake in Gladstone LNG’s infrastructure assets contributes to focusing
(GLNG) downstream assets. further TotalEnergies’ capital on core produc-
French major TotalEnergies said on July ing assets and fully reflects TotalEnergies’ active
13 that its more than $750mn deal with GIP portfolio management.”
Australia would see the infrastructure inves- This is not GIP’s first deal involving Aus-
tor receive a throughput-based tolling fee tralian LNG infrastructure, with the company
calculated on Total GLNG Australia’s (TGA) agreeing in December 2020 to pay Royal Dutch
share of gas processed through the down- Shell AUD3.3bn ($2.47bn) for a 26.25% stake in
stream facilities. The tolling will remain in Queensland Curtis LNG’s (QCLNG) infrastruc-
place for 15 years and has an effective date ture assets.
of January 1. The QCLNG Common Facilities – which
TGA, meanwhile, will retain full ownership Shell continues to operate with a 73.75% inter-
of its 27.5% interest in the GLNG downstream est – include storage tanks, jetties and operations
joint venture. Downstream facilities mainly infrastructure that service the two-train, 8.5mn
comprise the project’s 400-km gas transporta- tpy gas export project.
tion system and its two-train, 7.8mn tonne per The Anglo-Dutch super-major said at the
year (tpy) liquefaction plant. time that the stake sale was consistent with its
The Port of Gladstone-based plant receives its strategy of divesting non-core assets as it seeks to
feedstock gas from the Fairview, Arcadia, Roma further “high-grade and simplify” its portfolio.™

Week 28 15•July•2021 www. NEWSBASE .com P9