Eni pauses on sale of Australian upstream assets

Italian energy firm Eni has put on hold the sale of its Australian oil and gas assets after failing to attract bids near the company's valuation. This includes a 10.99pc stake in the Bayu-Undan gas field that provides feedstock for the 3.7mn t/yr Darwin LNG in the Northern Territory (NT).

The sale process has been halted, Eni said but provided no further details. It also owns and operates the Blacktip gas field in the Bonaparte basin offshore NT and owns 65pc of the undeveloped 10 trillion ft³ (283bn m³) Evans Shoal gas field in the same area.

Production from Bayu-Undan is forecast to be exhausted within the next two years. Darwin LNG will source feedstock from the Barossa gas field. Eni has no stake in Barossa but is expected to receive a share of a third-party processing fee through its stake in Darwin LNG, which is operated by Australian independent Santos.

Barossa, which is also operated by Santos, was chosen ahead of Evans Shoal as the preferred backfill supplier for Darwin LNG.

By Kevin Morrison