Australia’s Mereenie JV signs gas supply deal with NT

The joint venture (JV) partners at Mereenie, the Northern Territory's (NT's) largest onshore operating gas field, have entered a six-year deal to supply the NT government from 1 January 2025.

The 40.5PJ (1.08bn m³) take-or-pay gas sales agreement (GSA) mitigates the risk incurred by closures to the 90 TJ/d (2.4mn m³/d) Northern gas pipeline (NGP). It does this by contracting all firm production capacity and expanding by up to 16 TJ/d on any day in 2025 when the NGP is unable to deliver to the east coast network, operator Australian independent Central Petroleum said on 29 July.

The GSA underwrites the JV's potential investment in two new production wells at Mereenie, said Central, which holds a 25pc stake, by increasing firm sales to the NT by up to 6 TJ/d.

The NT is dependent on gas-fired power supply but supply problems at Italian oil firm Eni's offshore Blacktip field led it to signing a GSA with Mereenie for 2024 supply earlier this year.

The issues at Blacktip resulted in the NGP ceasing flows in early February, cutting Mereenie off from its customers.

The NT this week also signed a GSA with Australian independent Empire Energy for supply from the proposed 25 TJ/d Carpentaria project in the onshore Beetaloo subbasin.

A unit of Australia's Macquarie Bank owns 50pc of Mereenie, located in the Amadeus basin, with upstream firm New Zealand Oil and Gas holding 17.5pc and the remaining 7.5pc is owned by Australian independent Cue Energy.

By Tom Major