Australian independent Empire Energy will buy domestic utility AGL Energy's dormant Rosalind Park gas plant (RPGP) for A$2.5mn ($1.7mn) to further its plans to develop the Carpentaria asset in the Northern Territory's (NT) Beetaloo basin.
The 42 TJ/d (1.12mn m³/d) RPGP was used for AGL's 144-well Camden coal-seam gas project in New South Wales' McArthur region, operating from late 2004 until August this year. Its nameplate capacity is above the 25 TJ/d Empire is targeting for its Carpentaria pilot project.
Empire will now transfer the plant from storage in Queensland to the NT for reassembly in 2024, subject to government approvals and a final investment decision on Carpentaria in the coming months, the firm said on 4 December.
The RPGP acquisition will help meet its planned 2025 first gas at Carpentaria, Empire said, which announced commercially viable flow rates in May and holds previously estimated contingent resources of 575bn ft³ (16.28bn m³). Buying RPGP will save it A$30mn and avoids a 12-month extension to the timeline for its first gas because of current supply chain issues, Empire said.
Empire received federal grants of A$19.4mn to further its drilling programme in the Beetaloo basin, as part of the previous federal government's gas-fired economic recovery plan announced in 2020. The policy was ended by the present Labor party administration elected in May last year.
