BG Group clinches $5bn Australian pipeline sale
BG Group has sold an Australian natural gas pipeline to APA Group for $5bn (£3.2bn), clinching its largest deal in its history.
The deal, expected to complete in the first half of next year, should net the oil and gas company a profit of around $2.7bn. Some of this will be partly offset by a tax impairment making the final profit about $2bn.
Proceeds from the sale will be used to reduce the oil and gas company's net debt and fund future investment.
The 543km (337 miles) Queensland Curtis LNG (QCLNG) underground pipeline links BG Groups natural gas fields in southern Queensland to an export facility at Gladstone on the east coast of Australia.
It is currently valued at $1.6bn and is expected to deliver earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation of about $390m in 2016.
Andrew Gould, interim executive chairman of BG Group, said:
We are pleased to have entered into an agreement for the sale of this high-quality infrastructure with a bidder the calibre of APA Group.
The sale of the QCLNG pipeline is in line with our strategy to focus on BG Group's core areas of oil and gas exploration and production and LNG.
The timing reflects QCLNG's advanced stage of development; we are now on the verge of delivering the world's first large-scale project using natural gas from coal seams as a feedstock for LNG.
Oil and gas companies have been selling their assets in a bid to plug losses from crumbling oil prices. Earlier this week, oil prices plunged to new depths, sinking to a five-year low of $66.47 a barrel.