Woodside Gets Nod to Sell Browse Development Stake to MIMI (Australia)

Woodside Gets Nod to Sell Browse Development Stake to MIMI (Australia)

Further to Woodside’s announcement on 1 May 2012 that Japan Australia LNG (MIMI Browse) Pty Ltd (MIMI) offered to acquire a minority portion of the company’s equity in the proposed Browse LNG Development, Woodside advises that none of the Joint Venture partners have elected to match the MIMI offer.

The Foreign Investment Review Board has advised that it does not object to the equity sale to MIMI. Woodside is now working with the Browse Joint Venture partners (BHP Billiton, BP, Chevron and Shell) to finalise the sale, making MIMI a party to the Browse Joint Ventures.

To remind, Woodside on May 1 announced it had accepted  an offer from Japan Australia LNG (MIMI Browse) Pty Ltd (MIMI) to purchase a minority portion of Woodside’s equity in the proposed Browse LNG Development for US$2 billion, subject to joint venture pre-emption rights. The effective date is 1 January 2012.

The sale involves MIMI taking 16% interest in the East Browse joint venture and 8% interest in the West Browse joint venture. This would give MIMI an estimated 14.7% interest in the Browse development on an assumed unitised basis. Woodside’s assumed unitised interest in Browse would fall from 46% to 31.3%. Woodside remains operator of the development.

Woodside has also accepted an offer from MIMI for a long-term sales and purchase agreement for around 1.5 million tonnes of LNG a year from the Browse development subject to completion of the equity offer. The price agreed by the parties is confidential, but is in line with traditional Asian pricing for conventional LNG projects.

The transaction includes a joint marketing agreement between Woodside and MIMI under which the parties will jointly market co-mingled LNG volumes to the Asian market, primarily Japanese customers.

Woodside CEO Peter Coleman on that occasion said the equity sale and LNG agreements were a strong demonstration of the value of the Browse LNG Development.

“Browse is a world-class resource and the level of interest shown during this process reflects the strong ongoing demand for LNG from premium developments such as this,” Coleman said.

“We look forward to engaging in additional opportunities with Mitsui and Mitsubishi under the terms of the Memorandum of Understanding. This agreement reflects Woodside’s focus on building strategic relationships to capture value from opportunities which build on the company’s capabilities,” said Coleman back in May.

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Offshore Energy Today Staff, July 3, 2012