The vigil is finally over for Beach Energy (ASX:BPT) shareholders, with the energy producer today making the first delivery of sales gas from the Waitsia Gas Plant into the pipeline network in a “critical” first export milestone.
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Beach still has some small hurdles to get through, including testing emergency restart procedures, but production ramp-up awaits in Dongara.
Now that it’s finally rumbling to life, Beach’s long-awaited project is expected to supply gas to the North West Shelf, which ranks as one of the biggest LNG exporting hubs Down Under. Both output and returns should get a bump.
Very little was actually written by Beach today – no great surprise, considering how many detractors have circled the company – with the market announcement simply stating the producer was “pleased” about the news.
A previous market update, shared in November, had said Waitsia would build its rates towards nameplate capacity once first sales had gotten underway.
“Final start-up process and procedures are [starting] to enable the processing of raw gas and export of sales gas through the pipeline network,” a spokesperson had written, heralding upcoming first sales.
“The Waitsia Stage 2 Project, a joint venture between Mitsui Australia as operator and Beach, will then focus on ramping up Waitsia’s production rates.”
That nameplate goal, The Market Link understands, is 250 terajoules a day.
Markets have been less than impressed by the release today, however, with Monday’s trade action seeing BPT dump -1% already. It’s been red tickers for the producer for much of CY25, too; the company’s -11.3% YTD.
Whether actual Waitsia gas sales and then the production rate ticking up changes things remains to be seen, but at least things are happening.
Beach’s ongoing war against the Albanese government and its gas price cap may be impacting things as well. Most recently, company chief Brett Woods declared the cap has “effectively shut down all execution.”
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