BPH Energy resumes trading following PEP-11 controversy
BPH Energy has clarified details of the offshore project’s prospective gas resources.
Oil and gas investment company BPH Energy (ASX: BPH) has returned to ASX trading from a three-month suspension after clarifying details around its controversial PEP-11 offshore gas project.
The company, which owns 36.1% of the offshore NSW project’s operator Advent Energy, today released an announcement to the market that clarifies comments made in news articles last December referencing a mineral resource estimate totalling 5.665 trillion cubic feet of gas.
BPH justified this claim by referring to an initial announcement in 2010 and a recent reassessment of PEP11, which indicated a sum of the P50 estimates of all identified prospects and leads within the permit boundary of 5.7 TCF.
BPH also provided clarification of its own investment, noting Advent’s 85% stake in the project means its share of resources totals 4.8 TCF of P50 resources. In turn, BPH’s 36.1% interest in Advent provides the company exposure to 1.73 TCF of P50 gas resources.
ASX trading resumes after three months
The company had been suspended from trading on the ASX since 21 December amid controversy related to the offshore gas project.
Advent’s wholly-owned subsidiary Asset Energy had applied to the Federal Court in June, on behalf of Advent’s joint venture with Bounty Oil & Gas (ASX: BUY), requesting a review of the Commonwealth-NSW Offshore Petroleum Joint Authority ‘s decision to refuse to vary and suspend the conditions of the PEP-11 permit.
Asset had alleged former prime minister Scott Morrison had acted in bias when he ‘secretly’ appointed himself to the resources portfolio and led the decision to cancel the permit. Mr Morrison was seen as intervening to try to save critical Liberal seats on the central coast of NSW and inner-city Sydney ahead of the 2022 federal election.
Last month, BPH and Bounty jointly announced a resolution of the proceedings in which presiding judge Justice Jackson concluded the decision made by the Joint Authority was affected by “apprehended bias”.
BPH confirmed in the announcement that PEP-11 would continue in force and the joint venture was fully in compliance with the contractual terms of the permit.
Located in the offshore Sydney Basin, PEP-11 is being proposed as a gas and carbon storage project.
BPH retracts cost estimate
However, the reason for BPH’s trading suspension related to the breach of ASX listing rules when referencing the project’s resource estimate and using it in relation to forecast market costs.
In a response to the ASX’s query in December, BPH rejected the request to retract the information, stating it did believe it had a reasonable basis for the estimates, which were derived from detailed estimates of east coast gas production costs developed during an ACCC inquiry in 2018.
Nevertheless, in today’s clarification announcement BPH officially withdrew its cost estimate statement, stating investors should not rely on this for any investment decision concerning the company.