Australia's southernmost mainland state of Victoria has approved the restart of Australian independent Amplitude Energy's Patricia-Baleen gas fields in the offshore Gippsland basin.
The Patricia-Baleen licence was granted through the Commonwealth-Victoria offshore petroleum joint authority, Victoria's Labor government said on 28 October, with Amplitude expecting production to run from 2028 to 2035.
The 15PJ (400mn m³) brownfield project would restart wells at the field that have been shut since 2008 and have since recharged, an Amplitude spokesperson said. Gas would be processed via the Orbost gas plant, located east of the state capital Melbourne.
Amplitude is targeting a final investment decision on the project in early 2027, it said in its July-September production report this month.
Victoria will vote in state elections on 28 November, with energy policy an important battleground between Labor, the opposition centre-right Coalition and populist right One Nation. All parties are seeking to boost gas production ahead of projected severe declines at legacy fields.
The Labor government has previously been hostile to new gas but last week also approved a licence for the proposed Golden Beach storage facility.
The Argus-assessed AVX for November deliveries to Victoria was down by A$0.167/GJ from a week earlier to A$10.333/GJ ($7.27/GJ) on 23 October, likely because of expectations of weaker gas-fired power generation demand in November.
