NEWS
Woodside buys Gryphon of US for $282.7M
Houston, Sept 2 (LNG journal)
- Woodside Petroleum, the Australian liquefied natural gas and oil company, expanded its offshore interests in the Gulf of Mexico by acquiring the Houston-based Gryphon Exploration Co. for US$282.7 million.
Gryphon, a privately held company with interests in 118 leases in the Gulf, 95 of which are operated by Gryphon, will become part of Woodside Energy (USA) Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Woodside Petroleum
Woodside Chief Executive Don Voelte said the acquisition built on the company's existing Gulf of Mexico interests. “This delivers Woodside a significant expansion of our exploration portfolio in the Gulf, and also provides us existing production,” he said.
After taking into account Gryphon's net debt, the total acquisition cost was US$296.9M, Woodside said. The transaction is immediately earnings and operating cash flow accretive.
“The acquisition delivers Woodside immediate production from 15 fields, 11 of which are operated by Gryphon,” a Woodside statement said. “These fields are producing 30 million cubic feet of gas equivalent (MMcfge) a day. A further six fields under development could double production by the end of this year.”
Independent petroleum consultants Ryder Scott have estimated Gryphon's proven reserves as of June 30, 2005 to be 72.5 billion cubic feet of gas equivalent (Bcfge). Proven plus probable reserves are estimated to be 114Bcfge. These reserves are made up of at least 85 percent gas.
Woodside said it has hedged gas production from Gryphon at the average annual prices of US$10.04, US$9.01 and US$8.39 per million British thermal units for the years 2006, 2007 and 2008 respectively.
These hedges, in addition to Gryphon's existing hedges, represent about 50 percent of expected production to the end of 2008 and underpin about half the acquisition cost, Woodside said.
