Australia Delays Ruling On Shell, PetroChina JV Bid For Bow Energy
02 Novembre 2011 - 7:11AM
Dow Jones News
Australia's foreign investment watchdog has pushed back a
decision on the A$535 million ($554 million) takeover of coal seam
gas developer Bow Energy Ltd. (BOW.AU) by a joint venture of Royal
Dutch Shell PLC (RDSB) and PetroChina Co. (PTR) by up to 90
days.
In a government notice to parliament, the Foreign Investment
Review Board said it needed more time to decide whether to approve
the deal, which would enable Shell and PetroChina's Arrow Energy
venture to expand its proposed gas-export facility in Queensland
state.
Bow's board has unanimously recommended investors vote in favor
of the A$1.52 a share offer, and Shell said in September that it
expected the transaction to be implemented in January 2012.
It isn't known why FIRB has decided against ruling on the
transaction within the typical 30-day window.
Around 95% of FIRB decisions are made within a 30-day period set
out in law, and so-called interim orders extending the process by
90 days were made just twice during the year to the end of June
2010, the last period for which FIRB figures are available.
"Proposals that took more than 30 days to decide were generally
delayed by a lack of sufficient information from the parties or
because the application involved significant complexity or
sensitivity," FIRB said in its most recent annual report.
Coal seam gas -- trapped stores of methane far below the Earth's
surface -- is one of the world's hottest energy plays. More than
A$20 billion was spent in 2008 on deals in Australia alone by
companies including Shell, ConocoPhillips and BG Group PLC of the
U.K.
In August, Arrow Energy awarded preliminary engineering and
design contracts for an export facility at Curtis Island, near
Gladstone, producing an initial 8 million metric tons of LNG a
year.
Acquiring Bow Energy would allow the venture potentially to
expand the annual output capacity of each of the facility's two
processing units, known as trains, to 4.6 million tons of LNG.
-By David Winning and David Fickling, Dow Jones Newswires;
+61-2-82724688; david.winning@dowjones.com
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