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Japan’s JERA buys a piece of Santos’ (ASX:STO) Barossa project in NT

ASX 200
ASX:STO      MCAP $24.16B
16 April 2020 13:45 (AEST)

Oil and gas giant, Santos (STO) has signed a letter of intent (LOI) to sell a 12.5 per cent interest of its Barossa project to Japanese company, JERA.

The Barossa project is located offshore about 300 kilometres North of Darwin. Santos bought the ConocoPhillips’ northern Australia business for $2 billion last year, giving it control of Darwin LNG and Barossa, but has now sold some of its interest as it wants lower ownership of the two projects.

JERA already has a 6.1 per cent interest in Darwin LNG. The signing of the LOI with JERA builds the relationship between the companies and the connection of Barossa being the backfill for Darwin LNG.

Santos Managing Director and CEO Kevin Gallagher said this agreement follows thesale of 25 per cent interest in Darwin LNG to Korean company, SK E&S.

The company will now hold a 43.4 per cent interest in Darwin LNG and said it expects to lower its current 50 per cent stake in Barossa down to 40 per cent.

Previously, Santos announced it was going to defer any financial decisions on Barossa due to COVID-19 and the drop in oil prices.

“Barossa remains an important project for Santos due to its brownfield nature and
low cost of supply, and we will continue to use this time to achieve alignment and seek to further strengthen the economics of the project,” Kevin added.

Santos is down 2.28 per cent on the market today, trading for $4.29 per share at 12:58 pm AEST.

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