PRL Media/news, page-2075

I don’t have a strong preference either way. For efficiency, probably Total as they are already an (unofficial) partner and their technical teams are heavily involved in the scoping study. They also have 50+ years of history operating variously in Aus, including the massive Icthys/Inpex LNG development, resulting in a deep understanding of how important good State & Commonwealth government relations & community involvement is to ensure successful project delivery. Plus they have extremely deep pockets and are contemporaneously developing massive hydrogen projects elsewhere in the world at present meaning unrivalled technical expertise can be brought to bear here.

For homegrown initiative and pure nationalism, Fortescue/FFI who have us already surrounded at Gascoyne. If they bite the bullet and buyout PRL (and the Total partnership continues) then it also positions FFI as a potential partner with Total on other major projects in the hydrogen space, fasttracking Twiggy’s ambitions. And if for some reason Total or FFI don’t want to partner with each other, FFI then has free reign to develop Gascoyne itself with PRL’s pole position tenements including coastline, plus Govt lead agency status and negotiated native title aspects already largely achieved. David Frances & team might also be kept on which buys FFI considerable experience as part of the deal they can also redeploy to other H2 projects e.g. in Qld.

All hypothetical of course, just pointing out that curve balls could come at any time now.