From today's West Australian newspaper: Carnarvon cites Santos...

From today's West Australian newspaper:

Carnarvon cites Santos over delays on project


JORDAN MURRAY
Carnarvon Energy chairman Bill Foster has taken Dorado project partner Santos to task for development delays he believes has led to the gas explorer’s “disappointing” share price in recent months.
Those comments — in the company’s end-of-financialyear report released on Wednesday — come after Carnarvon earlier in August sold half its stake in its Bedout assets to CPC Taiwan for $US146m ($225m).
Santos owns 80 per cent of Dorado, located within the Bedout sub-basin off Port Hedland, with the remaining 20 per cent evenly split between Carnarvon and CPC.
Project delays were flagged as early as August 2022, when Carnarvon cited inflationary pressure and supply chain uncertainties as a reason to push back a final investment decision.
And while a decision is now slated for 2024, Mr Foster used Wednesday’s report to air “personal frustration” with the project’s partners, implying Santos was to blame for delays.
“Our partner and operator of the Dorado development has not progressed development activity at a pace that Carnarvon wishes, despite best efforts by Carnarvon,” he said.
“This delay to FID had a knock-on impact to Carnarvon’s share price which was particularly disappointing for shareholders.
“Strategically, we had been running multiple funding options that enabled us to secure capital for the Dorado development from an asset sell-down rather than an equity raising.”
Managing director Adrian Cook similarly said Dorado had been “technically ready” for FID in the past year. “Disappointingly, at the end of the period, the FID for the Dorado development is yet to be realised, with the joint venture planning for FID in 2024,” he said.
A spokesperson for Santos declined to address the matter when sought for comment.
The financial results showed Carnarvon reported a loss of $4.1m in the year to June.
The explorer’s cash position fell from $112.4m to $95.3m in that time, however, those figures were reported before Carnarvon finalised the sell down in its Dorado stake.