Santos acquired a 33% stake in the field, which is four kilometres off the eastern Victorian coast, when it bought OMV Australia’s Gippsland assets.

The sale to Cape Energy includes an agreement that Santos Direct will purchase up to 44 petajoules of sales gas produced from the Golden Beach field.

Santos managing director John Ellice-Flint said the sale was in keeping with the company's long-term strategy.

"This transaction continues Santos strategy of rationalising its portfolio by selling non-

core assets," he said.

"It also provides Santos Direct with another option for gas supply, in addition to our share of the Minerva gas field."

Ellice-Flint said the sale agreement was expected to be completed by the end of this third quarter, subject to government approvals.

Santos said Cape Energy was a private group involved in oil and gas development and production, focused on assets in the Asia Pacific region which "others may perceive to be mature, marginal, or non-material".

The purchase will be the group's first in Australia.

Cape Energy recently bought into the Galoc oil field in the Philippines, joining with London start-up Team Oil and Dutch private company Vitol to form Galoc Production Company (GPC).

This deal was finally confirmed today with the last of the six Filipino partners signing the farmin agreement yesterday.

GPC will take three-quarters of the 77.721% share held by the Filipino partners, taking up a 58.291% slice of the Galoc block. The remaining 22.279% stake is held by Perth-based Nido Petroleum.