Woodside Petroleum To Pay $400 Mln For BHP Billiton's Certain Australian Assets

(RTTNews) - Woodside Petroleum Ltd.(WOPEF.PK, WOPEY.PK, WPL.AX) on Monday said it has entered into binding Sale and Purchase Agreements to acquire half of Anglo- Australian mining giant BHP Billiton plc's (BHP.AX, BLT.L, BBL, BHP) Scarborough area assets in the Carnarvon Basin, located offshore Western Australia.

Woodside will pay BHP Billiton $250 million on completion of the transaction and a contingent payment of $150 million upon a positive final investment decision to develop the Scarborough field.

The effective date of the transaction is July 1, 2016.

The company noted that the acquisition includes a 25% interest in WA-1-R and a 50% interest in WA-62-R, which together contain the Scarborough gas field. Woodside will also acquire a 50% interest in WA-61-R and WA-63-R which contain the Jupiter and Thebe gas fields.

The Scarborough area assets include the Scarborough, Thebe and Jupiter fields, which are estimated to contain gross 8.7 trillion cubic feet of gas resources at the 2C confidence level. Woodside's net share of the resources is estimated to be 2.6 trillion cubic feet of gas.

Woodside will operate WA-61-R, WA-62-R and WA-63-R. ExxonMobil is the operator of WA-1-R.

According to Woodside CEO Peter Coleman, the addition of Carnarvon Basin volumes to the Australian portfolio would complement Woodside's growth strategy and leverage the company's deep water and LNG capabilities.

Completion of the deal is subject to pre-emption rights and customary regulatory approvals and is targeted by year end 2016.