BassGas' production improved so much following the introduction of compression on the Yolla platform but was hampered by unscheduled maintenance the onshore Lang Lang gas plant.
AWE's overall sales volumes subsequently rose by 16% to 600,000 barrels of oil equivalent, after adjusting for the sale of Tui in FY17; while sales revenue followed suit, rising by 15% to $19.3 million having achieved an average blended gas price of $4.43.GJ for the quarter.
Field opex was $10.8 million, up 18% than the June quarter mainly due to the unscheduled maintenance at BassGas, operatorship transition costs at Casino and higher activity levels at Dongara and Beharra Springs. Field EBITDAX was also up 12% to $8.5 million.
Development spend dropped 35%as the BassGas MLE project was finalised and the Ande Ande Lumut spend was reallocated to Evaluation rather than Development, while exploration remained low totalling $900,000 for Q3.
The $1.6 million evaluation spend reflected ongoing work on AAL, along with Trefoil feasibility studies, and with all that total investment expenditure totalled $10.4 million, down 19% on Q2.
AWE had $64 million in debt by the end of Q3 - which was high $9.7 million more than Q2 due to ongoing high levels of development activity at Waitsia including Waitsia-4 appraisal drilling, Waitsia-3 flow testing, front end engineering and design work and the delay in receiving payment for the sale of the Lengo gas project to a HyOil subsidiary for up to $27.5 million.
The company had $17 million in cash and $81 million in drawn debt by the end of the quarter.
Yet despite those production rises across over east, Waitsia continues to be the great white knight, with outstanding results from the Waitsia-3 flow test earlier this month showing peak gas flow rates of 50 million cubic feet per day.
Waitsia 2 and 4 will be tested through November, by the end of which tenders are due for Waitsia Stage 2 facilities design and FEED.
The Waitsia-4 appraisal well drilled over July-August also exceeded expectations and confirmed the eastern extension of the gas field.
Waitsia 2P reserves rose 25% to 228PJ of gas (AWE share) in August, with more increases likely before the end of Q1 in calendar year 2018.
AWE was up 2.9% this morning to 53.5c.
