BPH Energy wrapping up a successful year on multiple fronts

The managing director and executive chair of innovative clean and conventional energy business BPH Energy (ASX: BPH) says his company is well placed to support Australia’s “Future Gas Strategy”.

Speaking at the company’s AGM, David Breeze told the firm’s shareholders that, through its 35.8% interest in Advent Energy, BPH has an asset that has the potential to play a significant and direct role in New South Wales’ energy transition and help to reduce energy costs.

Advent, via its subsidiary Asset Energy, is the operator of the large PEP-11 permit located off the coast of Newcastle.

Years of exploration activities at PEP-11 have identified the potential for the permit to contain 5.7 trillion cubic feet of gas across multiple structures.

If developed, that would be sufficient to supply energy-hungry NSW with the bulk of its gas needs for 20 years.

“Potential gas production offshore from Newcastle, from the Pep-11 permit and the potential to use that same area to permanently store captured carbon emissions, can both contribute to meeting the challenges of climate change and sustaining secure employment in the region,” Mr Breeze told AGM attendees.

National gas strategy connection

Mr Breeze highlighted the Federal Government’s recent release of a “Future Gas Strategy Consultation Paper” as an indication of where PEP-11 gas can be a potentially significant new energy source.

In releasing the strategy paper, Federal Resources Minister Madeleine King noted that gas supply is decreasing faster than demand on Australia’s east coast, potentially leading to “shortages, supply disruptions and high prices”.

Mr Breeze told the shareholder gathering that the Australian Energy Market Operator has also warned of the “material risk” to Australia’s power supplies through potential future gas shortfalls and a lack of investment in gas generation.

Clean energy opportunities

The BPH chair also highlighted the company’s potential to provide clean energy opportunities for Australia.

He said that over the past year significant developments have occurred via MEC Resources (ASX: MMR) investee Clean Hydrogen Technologies.

“Clean Hydrogen is developing its ‘Commercial System’ where it will satisfy scale and commercial objectives resulting in the development of income from sale of clean hydrogen products.”

“Clean Hydrogen’s commercial system means an end-to-end system which consumes and processes hydrocarbons, using Clean Hydrogen’s own thermocatalytic reactor process and Clean Hydrogen’s catalysts to produce hydrogen at commercial scale, enabling the sale of the clean hydrogen products (being hydrogen and carbon black).”

Important health developments

The highly-diversified BPH has also helped make breakthroughs on the health front.

BPH investee company Cortical Dynamics has secured Food and Drug Administration (FDA) clearance in the USA for its Brain Anaesthesia Response Monitor (BARM) system.

Mr Breeze told the audience FDA clearance is a major milestone in Cortical’s development and lays the foundation for the commercialisation of the BARM system in the USA, with the BARM ‘plug and play’ version 1 approved by Philips as compatible with its IntelliView operating room monitors earlier this year.

“These factors provide support for a positive 2024,” Mr Breeze concluded.