OPERATIONS

Arrow ponders international spin-off

ARROW Energy has revived plans to spin off at least part of its international arm, a move that could free up cash needed to fund the Fisherman's Landing liquefied natural gas project in Gladstone.

Arrow ponders international spin-off

The company said on Wednesday it might carry out a partial initial public offering of up to 20% of Arrow International in the first half of the 2010-11 financial year, reducing its stake to 70%.

Previous plans to sell off its international operations were shelved after Arrow formed a major alliance with Shell, which saw the supermajor acquire a 10% stake in Arrow International and a 30% stake in Arrow's Australian upstream tenements.

Arrow has seven projects in China, India, Indonesia and Vietnam with another nine lined up for the second half of the current financial year.

Managing director Nick Davies said operations in most of these countries had the potential to be at least as large as Arrow's Australian operations in size and profitability within the next six years.

He also revealed the company's ambitious goal to grow production 10-fold by 2015.

"Gross gas production is up 27 per cent from this time last year, demonstrating the strong performance of our producing fields. We estimate that by 2015 Arrow's net gas production will increase 10-fold to 220 petajoules per annum from our major Australian gas fields in the Bowen and Surat basins and multiple fields throughout Asia."

Arrow posted a net loss of $A16.26 million for the half-year ending December 31, 2009, due to expenditure for Fisherman's Landing, international business development and higher expense and depreciation associated with the Braemar 2 power station following the increase in ownership.

Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation was $19.49 million, down from $336.73 million in the same period the previous year though this included the $307.6 million sale of tenements to Shell and a $26.6 million gain on revaluation of options held over Pure Energy shares.

Davies said the company's increases in production and reserves over the past year had lifted its confidence to pursue multiple coal seam gas-to-LNG opportunities in Queensland.

"We increased our certified gross proved and probable reserves 129 per cent to 6150 petajoules after only six months of our $300 million exploration and appraisal program."

Shares in Arrow closed at $3.64 on Wednesday, up 10c over the previous day.

TOPICS:

A growing series of reports, each focused on a key discussion point for the energy sector, brought to you by the Energy News Bulletin Intelligence team.

A growing series of reports, each focused on a key discussion point for the energy sector, brought to you by the Energy News Bulletin Intelligence team.

editions

ENB CCS Report 2024

ENB’s CCS Report 2024 finds that CCS could be the much-needed magic bullet for Australia’s decarbonisation drive

editions

ENB Cost Report 2023

ENB’s latest Cost Report findings provide optimism as investments in oil and gas, as well as new energy rise.

editions

ENB Future of Energy Report 2023

ENB’s inaugural Future of Energy Report details the industry outlook on the medium-to-long-term future for the sector in the Asia Pacific region.

editions

ENB Cost Report 2021

This industry-wide report aims to understand current cost levels across the energy industry