ACCC permits Vintage Energy and partners to jointly market gas from Vali field
Vintage Energy’s revised strategy involves building resources to maximise value from the Vali gas field as well as ensuring infrastructure is secured with appropriate capacity.
Vintage Energy (ASX: VEN) and its partners Megasco (ASX: MEL) and New Hope (ASX: NHC) subsidiary Bridgeport have secured authorisation from the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission to jointly market gas from the Vali field.
Vintage owns 50% of the Vali field which is covered by permit ATP 2021 in Queensland’s Cooper Basin. Metgasco and Bridgeport each hold 25% of the permit.
The ACCC’s authorisation announced today will enable the three companies to jointly market gas produced from the field for five years.
It also paves the way for the parties to enter gas supply agreements with customers for up to 15-year terms.
ACCC chair Rod Sims said the organisation considers joint marketing would likely result in “public benefits” by enabling the Vali field to be developed earlier and therefore result in new gas supply coming to market sooner.
“Current estimates suggest the annual production from the Vali field will be approximately 0.5% of the annual domestic gas demand in the east coast market.”
“Given the small amount of gas relative to the size of the overall market, this proposed joint marketing is unlikely to adversely affect competition,” Mr Sims added.
Vali gas field
Today’s positive news from the ACCC follows Vintage’s announcement yesterday that gas had been confirmed at the Vali-2 well within the Vali field.
Drilling of the well reached a total planned depth of 3,240m and resulted in a number of gas shows in the Toolachee and Patchawarra formations.
Wireline logging data has now confirmed gas is present in both formations with Vali-2 now cased and suspended in readiness for future production.
Vali-2 is the second well in the Vali field to be cased for production purposes with Vintage managing director Neil Gibbins saying it highlights the field’s multi-well potential.
When drilling Vali-2, the company joint venture was hoping to hit gas in the Toolachee formation, which it did.
Mr Gibbins said confirming gas in this formation indicates the upside the joint venture was looking for.
“We anticipate a corresponding reserve booking for the formation and an increase in the overall Vali field reserves,” he added.