Up for sale: a stake in the Crux project, illustrated here by an artist's impression
Nexus' Crux sale crashes
The previously announced sale of a 25% stake in Nexus’ Crux liquids project in Western Australia's Browse basin Block AC/P23 with an undisclosed international energy company has fallen through.
The potential sale, for $255 million valued Nexus’ 85% holding in the permit at $867 million. Nexus said the unnamed buyer did not receive board approval for the deal due to global market conditions.
Nexus is now starting a global search, spearheaded by Deutsche Bank, for a new partner in the Crux project.
The Melbourne-based company's stake in Crux will drop to 60% with the new player on 25% and Japan's Osaka Gas on 15%.
The $1.15 billion project is aiming to produce proved and probable reserves of 75 million barrels of condensate from the first half of 2011.
The project will produce more than 1 billion cubic feet per day of wet gas and strip out more than 38,000 barrels per day of condensate, then reinject the gas.
Meanwhile, Japan’s Mitsui will buy a 20% stake in exploration permit AC/P41 in Western Australia’s Browse basin from Australia’s Nexus Energy.
Under the deal, Mitsui will pay $20 million in cash and fund costs attributable to Nexus’s remaining 30% interest for three exploration wells in the permit, to the extent of $34 million. This includes the cost of drilling the Libra prospect due to spud later this month.