Foundation Assets

Tri-Star is a pioneer of coal seam gas in Australia. Tri-Star’s historic exploration activities included the drilling of Queensland’s first commercial coal seam gas well, which led to the discovery and development of some of the most prospective coal seam gas fields in the world. These fields have provided essential gas supply for the east coast of Australia and the foundation gas feedstock for Queensland’s LNG export industry.

Tri-Star has maintained long-term interests in these fields which include Arcadia, Combabula, Condabri, Durham Ranch, Fairview, Spring Gully, and Roma East.

The long-term interests from farm-out deals include royalties, gas sales, conversion rights, and reversion rights. Each agreement also comes with significant access to information.

APLNG acquired various coal seam gas interests from Tri-Star in 2002 that are subject to reversionary rights and an ongoing royalty interest in favour of Tri-Star. These interests represent approximately 19 per cent of APLNG’s 2P CSG reserves and approximately 18 per cent of 3P (proved plus probable plus possible) CSG reserves (as of 30 June 2023).

The reversion and ongoing royalty interest are the subject of significant litigation.  As of 25 October 2023, Tri-Star’s Amended Statement of Claim prescribes a value of $4.7 billion on the reversion rights and $288 million in underpayment of royalties.

Entities now owned by Santos and part of the GLNG project acquired various coal seam gas interests from Tri-Star in 2004 (Fairview and Arcadia) and 2006 (Roma East) that are subject to an ongoing royalty interest in favour of Tri-Star. These interests represent greater than 50 per cent of GLNG’s 2P CSG reserves.