The syndicate of 28 banks has already extended the loan three times leaving Epic until March 16 to make the repayment under the current agreement although company chief David Williams has previously said he believed the banks would extend the date in order to secure a satisfactory sale of Epic’s $2.6 billion Australian assets including the DBNGP.

Potential buyers expected an announcement within days of the February 19 bidding deadline but an outcome may still be one to two weeks away.

A number of Australian and international bidders expressed interest in pieces of the Epic pie although early reports suggest the embattled company will have to settle for far less than the $2.4 billion it paid for the Dampier to Bunbury Natural Gas Pipeline around four years ago.

The new owner will probably face severe pressure from the WA State Government to implement expansion plans on the DBNGP as soon as possible in order to avert any future power crisis such as experienced in Perth during the recent summer.

With an expected outlay of several hundred million needed for the expansion Epic’s hopes of reaching its desired $2.4 billion sale price is looking further away than ever.