Beach Energy investors can expect higher costs and delays at its $768 million Waitsia gas project in Western Australia’s Perth Basin after the collapse of its
Mr Engelbrecht said after reporting Beach’s December-quarter results on Tuesday that inflation and the tight labour market might have some bearing on the cost of the new contract, but played down the long-term implications for the project as immaterial. Mr Engelbrecht said investors should expect an “imminent” appointment of a new contractor to replace Clough to build the project, part owned by Japan’s Mitsui, which is due to start producing gas for processing into liquefied natural gas in the second half of this year.
“Beach is navigating a challenging period while we work hard to deliver our major growth projects in the Otway and Perth basins,” Mr Engelbrecht said.“While we have announced a reduction to our Perth Basin proven and provable reserves following the Waitsia development drilling campaign, we remain confident in the Perth Basin as a major growth area including our ability to supply 3.75Mt of LNG volumes to bp and meeting our domestic demand commitment.