Taiwan’s CPC set for Dorado stake

CPC recently finalised a deal with Carnarvon to buy a 10 per cent interest in Dorado.

Taiwan’s state-owned petroleum company CPC Corporation is being tipped as the most likely buyer of an additional stake in the Dorado oil and gas project off the coast of Western Australia.

Owner Santos is understood to have had four or five parties in a data room, in a process run by investment bank Goldman Sachs.

Among them are believed to be Kufpec – the Kuwait Foreign Petroleum Exploration Company – and at least one Japanese suitor, with Mitsui and Mitsubishi likely candidates.

Other likely parties are Tokyo Gas, Osaka Gas and Jadestone Energy.

But the latest chatter in the market is that Santos is pinning its hopes on CPC investing further.

CPC recently finalised a deal with Carnarvon, the other owner of the project, to buy a 10 per cent interest in Dorado and its Pavo project for an all-up payment of $US146m.

Santos has an 80 per cent interest in Dorado and the thinking in the market is that it remains keen to reduce that exposure to about 60 per cent.

Azure Capital-advised Carnarvon Energy was the only other holder before CPC bought in.

Dorado, once owned by Woodside Petroleum and later Quadrant Energy before it was purchased by Santos, is an integrated oil and gas project that will be developed in two phases.

It is located in the Bedout sub-basin, about 140km off the coast of WA’s Port Hedland.

The Dorado and Pavo fields are estimated to contain gross 2C recoverable contingent resources of 189 million barrels of liquids and 401 petajoules of gas.

The Santos share is 147 million barrels and 320 petajoules, respectively.

A final investment decision on the proposed Dorado project was deferred in 2022 amid economic uncertainty and cost volatility, and it is now expected late this year.

Once sanctioned, it is expected to take about four years to get to production.

Carnarvon is now sourcing additional funding, either through debt, prepayments or royalties, to pay for the project and says it has received strong interest.

It comes after Woodside this month announced the sale of a 10 per cent interest in its West Australian Scarborough gas project to Sumitomo and Sojitz for $US880m.

Meanwhile, market watchers are keeping a close eye on movements by shareholders in North West Shelf.

Chevron put its stake on the market about three years ago through UBS, but there was no deal. Now many believe Shell is the more likely seller, with existing shareholder BP being the most likely acquirer.

BP could use the North West Shelf to process its gas from the Browse Basin.

BP has a 44 per cent ownership interest in the North West Shelf and in April, it bought a stake in the Browse gas field from joint venture partner Shell.