Australian Coalseam Gas WestSide Has Decided to Bring Talks Over a Potential Takeover

Australian coalseam gas junior WestSide has decided to bring talks over a potential takeover to a conclusion in the "near term," the company said in a statement Tuesday. 

Westside announced in November 2012 that it had received an A$185 million ($188 million) offer for all of its shares. The buyer, which WestSide has not identified but local newspaper The Australian reported previously was PetroChina, submitted a non-binding offer of A$0.52/share for the Queensland-based company. 

Since then, Westside has been in discussions on the proposal. "Uncertainty remains as to whether any binding proposal which might be acceptable to the WestSide board will eventuate," the company reiterated Tuesday. 

WestSide operates and holds 51% of the Meridian coalseam gas fields west of Gladstone in Queensland's Bowen Basin, which are connected to the commercial gas network. The other partner in the fields is a local arm of Japan's Mitsui. 

The company also has exploration acreage in the Bowen Basin with Mitsui and BG Group's QGC subsidiary, as well as a 51:49 exploration joint venture with Mitsui in Queensland's Galilee Basin. 

PetroChina has been active in acquiring interests in the Queensland coalseam gas sector over recent years. The company joined forces with Shell in 2010 to take over Arrow Energy, which is planning to construct an 8 million mt/year LNG plant on Curtis Island in Gladstone. 

In 2012, it completed the purchase of coalseam gas assets from local junior Molopo Energy, with a view to supplying gas to a 3 million mt/year LNG plant being planned in Gladstone by Liquefied Natural Gas Limited. LNG Limited is 19.9% owned by China Huanqiu Contracting & Engineering Corporation, or HQC, a 100% subsidiary of PetroChina's state-owned parent China National Petroleum Corporation.