Dart Energy Expands Scottish CBM Project

Australian oil and gas explorer and producer Dart Energy has announced that it has expanded an existing gas sale agreement for its coal-bed methane project in Scotland.

Under the expanded agreement, Dart will sell additional gas to SSE Energy supply over an existing supply agreement already in place for the project, which is covered by licence PEDL 133.

The changes to the deal act in addition to an agreement signed by the two companies in July of last year which saw Dart agree to deliver gas to SSE over a five-year period from April 2013. The addendum to the deal will allow Dart to provide incremental increases on the agreed gas supply for a five-year period from April 2015.

The original deal allows Dart to sell gas to SSE, a 50 per cent stakeholder of Scottish Gas Networks, up to a limit of 45 billion cubic feet, the probably and proven gas reserves in the PEDL 133 licence. The addendum to the deal will allow Dart to increase that to up to 60 billion cubic feet of gas.

Chief executive of Dart John McGoldrick said the additional agreement comes as a result of the success of the licence and greater certainty around reserves.

"As we have progressed the PEDL 133 pilot drilling and development planning, we have been able to demonstrate greater certainty around the field’s production potential, translating directly in the ability to sell more gas," he said.  

"We now have forward visibility on potential sales of over 60 billion cubic feet of gas from the PEDL 133 project commencing as early as April. This represents around 10 per cent of the contingent resource on the block, so we believe that as we move into production and continue to mature a greater proportion of the resource there is ability to increase gas sales and revenues even further."