Cooper Energy announces funding for Minerva gas plant upgrade

Cooper Energy has announced A$55m ($38.4m) in funding to support increased new gas supply for south-east Australia through an upgrade of the Minerva gas plant in Victoria.

Cooper Energy is the operator and 50% interest holder of the gas plant, while Mitsui Group holds the other 50% stake.

In December 2019, Cooper Energy, along with partner Mitsui, completed the acquisition of BHP’s 90% interest in the Minerva joint venture (JV).

Since last December, front end engineering and design works have been completed to support the final investment decision to upgrade and link the plant to process gas produced from the Casino, Henry and Netherby fields in the VIC L24/L30 permit areas, in which the two firms hold a 50% stake each.

The Minerva gas plant is near Port Campbell, Victoria and has the capacity to process up to 150 TJ/day. It will be renamed as the Athena Gas Plant.

The JV partners will invest A$37m to upgrade the plant. They have already spent A$17.8m for purchasing the plant, on front-end engineering and design work, as well as care and maintenance.

Cooper Energy managing director David Maxwell said: “This investment decision represents an important milestone in Cooper Energy’s continuing growth as a safe, competitive, efficient and reliable developer and marketer of new gas supplies for homes and businesses in south-east Australia.”

Following completion of the infrastructure works,  the gas plant will be able to  supply 16 PJ of currently undeveloped gas.

Maxwell added: “This is a ‘shovel-ready project’ which will see Cooper Energy and Mitsui Group upgrade the idle Minerva Gas Plant to be a processing hub for local production and discoveries in offshore Otway Basin, Victoria.

“It means local jobs for local contractors, which will help deliver reliable gas supplies into the east coast market. The investment follows the successful exploration programme by Cooper Energy and Mitsui Group, resulting in the Annie-1 gas discovery, in the Otway Basin, the first offshore discovery in south-east Australia over seven years.”

Gas derived from four offshore wells, namely Casino-4, Casino-5, Henry-2, and Netherby-1 will reach the Minerva plant via a pipeline tie-in.

The upgrade project is expected to boost recovery enabled by lower plant inlet pressure.

The project is also expected to create anywhere between 30 and 50 local jobs during the execution phase, with 20 ongoing jobs.