Good afternoon and thank you for joining the Cooper Energy Webcast Presentation and Conference Call regarding the acquisition of the Orbost Gas Processing Plant, AUD 244 million equity raise, and AUD 400 million underwritten debt facility. My name is Eddy Glavas, and I'm the General Manager of Commercial and Development and acting Investor Relations Manager for Cooper Energy. I'm joined by Managing Director, David Maxwell, and Chief Financial Officer, Dan Young, who'll be taking you through the presentation this afternoon. After the presentation, we'll be hosting a Q&A session, and we welcome your questions. Presentation and announcement were released to the ASX this afternoon and are available on the Cooper Energy website. This webcast is being recorded, and this will also be made available on our website later today.
Please note the important notice and disclaimer information on page two and three of the presentation and on the final page of the ASX announcement. I will now hand over to David Maxwell to kick off the presentation.
Thanks very much, Eddy, and let me add my welcome to everybody that's listening to the call live and also those that will listen later on in the recorded session. Apologies that the start time slipped 30 minutes, but that was designed to allow everybody the opportunity to see what was released this afternoon. Welcome to what is an important day and key milestone for Cooper Energy. The acquisition and funding announcement this afternoon is transformational for the company, accelerates the next growth phase, and this is happening at a time when the market needs more gas and the price outlook is strong. Today, in one stroke, we address the issues that have been impacting the company value and share price over the last couple of years. Firstly, an overview of what has been agreed with APA and our banks.
Slide six. Cooper Energy will acquire 100% of the Orbost Gas Processing Plant from APA. The acquisition, together with the funding plan, is earning and cash flow accretive and significantly strengthens the balance, the company's actual and strategic value. The acquisition delivers an immediate cash flow increase as we remove the capital recovery component of the Orbost processing tariff. There are benefits from the alignment of interests from the reservoir through to the market and an integrated approach when combined with our Athena gas plant. This transaction is a clear alignment with our domestic gas-focused strategy. There is now an enhanced opportunity to optimize and maximize value across the two ideally located cost-competitive gas hubs. Here, I refer to the Gippsland Orbost hub and the Otway Athena hub.
All this is happening at a time when gas supply is tight and existing gas prices and the outlook for future gas prices is strong. Cooper Energy now has a stronger balance sheet and the basis for an enlarged debt capital platform. The transaction is the opportunity to accelerate growth in both the Gippsland and the Otway basins, and importantly, we maintain our carbon neutral status. Turning to the transaction and funding summary. Slide seven. Cooper Energy is acquiring the Orbost plant and the associated infrastructure from APA for between AUD 270 million and AUD 330 million. There is a fixed upfront payment of AUD 210 million at completion. This is expected in the second half of May. Total deferred payments of AUD 60 million to AUD 120 million.
That's between AUD 60 million and AUD 120 million, with the final amount linked to the Orbost performance during what's referred to as the transition period. This is the period between financial close, second half of July, as I mentioned, and the transfer of the major hazard facility license to Cooper Energy, which is expected to be some six months from now. The only condition of the acquisition completion is the completion of the equity raising announced today. The equity raise is at a price of AUD 0.245 per share, which is a 10.8% discount to TERP and a 17.1% discount to the five-day VWAP.
Specifically on debt funding, we have a new fully funded underwritten AUD 400 million senior debt facility with domestic and international banks and the opportunity to upsize the facility by a further AUD 120 million. The upsizing is subject to later lender approval. This is effectively a more than doubling of the current debt facility, which is some AUD 200 million. Slide eight summarizes the consideration. As mentioned, the purchase price range is AUD 270 million-AUD 330 million, with an upfront payment of AUD 210 million and the deferred component allocated across 2 or 3 years. The total amount will be determined by the average Orbost plant performance in the period when APA is operating the plant.
They're operating the plant on behalf of Cooper Energy until the major hazard facility license is awarded to Cooper Energy. The table on the right summarizes the price and payments at the different average processing rates during APA operatorship. This is until the major hazard facility license is awarded. For example, at an average processing rate of 55 terajoules a day, the total consideration is AUD 285 million, with AUD 210 million upfront, AUD 40 million paid after one year from completion, and AUD 35 million paid two years from completion. This payment structure is a good balance of processing rate and reward at a time when all Sole production over and above the gas sales agreement nominations can be sold into the spot market. Turning now to slide 10.
Gas supply in Southeast Australia is tight, and the outlook is it's getting even tighter. Against this background, we have seen Victoria and Sydney spot prices increase significantly over the last six months. The spot price currently is capped at AUD 40 Australian AUD 40 per gigajoule. The international LNG price is having an increasing influence on gas prices in Eastern Australia, something the ACCC has also identified in their own analysis. Please note that EnergyQuest are forecasting an uplift in term gas contract prices, and this aligns with experience that we've had with our own customer discussions. On slide 11, Wood Mackenzie have illustrated commercial reserves in Southeast Australia based on their own analysis. The commercial reserves here are the Wood Mackenzie's assessment of the likely reserves to be commercial from known resources.
It's a little bit different to what you might refer to as proven and probable reserves. The Cooper Energy reserves and resources are well-positioned relative to others in terms of location, cost, and exposure to the spot price. This chart helps illustrate that Cooper Energy is really the only pure play for investors' exposure to the Southeastern Australia gas market. Slide 12 outlines the two hubs and the integrated Cooper Energy ownership and operatorship position across the two hubs. Here, I'm referring to Athena and the Otway Hub and Orbost and the Gippsland Hub. I draw your attention to the comment, "The Orbost Gas Processing Plant acquisition price is equivalent to a forward EBITDAX multiple of 4.4x-5.2x." This is very attractive for a key gas or energy infrastructure asset.
The acquisition provides a greater ability to optimize and time the development opportunities across the two hubs operated by Cooper Energy. Slide 13. This outlines the ownership, resource, gas plant processing rates, and capacities in each of the Otway, Athena, and Gippsland Orbost hubs. Included on this slide are the customers to whom we sell our gas under term contracts. Slide 14, the acquisition and integration into the company's southeastern Australia portfolio enables greater optionality and value creation across the total portfolio. The enhanced alignment across the gas value chain delivers significant synergies for both the Gippsland and the Otway assets. It also allows Cooper Energy to utilize and deepen the key relationships which are so important with the regulators, governments, banks, communities, shareholders, and customers for the benefit of all. I mentioned the Orbost Gas Processing Plant acquisition is highly accretive for cash flow and earnings.
Slide 15 outlines this for Orbost processing rates between 45 terajoules a day and 60 terajoules a day for Sole gas. I'm not intending to go through all these scenarios, but rather emphasize the very large impact the acquisition and funding has on group cash flow generation and the resultant highly accretive nature of this, including on a per share basis, given we're fully equity funding the acquisition. Looking at the top left-hand side chart and focusing on 55 terajoules a day, our EBITDAX from the Gippsland Basin goes from around AUD 200,000 a day to around AUD 360,000 per day. Based on a conservative spot gas price assumption of only AUD 10 a gigajoule. I note that today's price is circa four times this level.
If we annualize this and move, then, to the top right-hand side, you can see that this results in almost AUD 60 million of additional EBITDAX. As we're not paying PRRT at Sole, and given the group's historic carry forward tax loss. The circa AUD 60 million increase in EBITDAX translates almost dollar for dollar to after-tax unlevered free cash flow as a sustaining CapEx at Orbost is fairly minimal. On a per share basis and focusing on the EBITDAX and cash flow uplift, this translates, per share, to the accretion of around 12%. An 80% increase to EBITDAX versus a roughly 60% increase in shares. On that metric alone, this shows how compelling a transaction the acquisition of Orbost is for Cooper Energy shareholders.
Slide 16 illustrates the significant leverage to increasing processing rates and spot gas prices up to the current spot price cap of AUD 40 per gigajoule. The gray horizontal dashed line shows the maximum daily quantity of contracted gas from Sole, which we sell under long-term take-or-pay contracts to our portfolio of quality gas customers. As processing rates at Orbost push up and over 50 terajoules, and as we've recently seen, reasonably stable production at over 60 terajoules a day, the incremental daily EBITDAX from our integrated position in the Gippsland, that is the combined upstream and midstream EBITDAX generation, increases rapidly.
At the capped AUD 40 per gigajoule price level we've seen in the last few weeks and a 60 terajoule per day processing gas rate at Orbost, we're at almost AUD 800,000 of daily EBITDAX compared to a bit under AUD 300,000 at the contracted level. Slide 17. This summarizes the Otway Basin growth opportunities, which include existing contingent resources such as Annie and low-risk exploration utilizing the existing pipeline and Athena gas plant infrastructure. The OP3D project or Otway phase III Development is getting ready to enter the detailed engineering and design phase ahead of a final investment decision in the medium term. Annie and other offshore gas is receiving a lot of interest from the long-term gas customers. This perhaps is no surprise given the current gas market outlook in Southeast Australia.
Slide 18 illustrates the same for the Gippsland Basin with the addition of the Orbost Gas Processing Plant. This includes the development opportunity of the existing Manta contingent resource via the Orbost Gas Processing Plant. In both the Gippsland and Otway Basins, there are some material gas exploration opportunities which can be readily commercialized post-discovery through our own facilities and gas plants into a very attractive gas market. Turning to slide 19. The Cooper Energy industry-leading net zero carbon position will be maintained post the Orbost acquisition, and we will maintain our commitment to net zero as we further grow our business. It is a core part of who we are as Cooper Energy. This position has received a lot of very positive feedback from our financiers and many investors.
Now, turning specifically to the Orbost Gas Processing Plant or OGPP as it's often referred to. Slide 21. The Orbost plant processes our Sole gas that's 100% Cooper Energy-owned for sale into the long-term gas sales agreements with AGL , EnergyAustralia, Alinta, and the Visy Group. Gas above the nominations from these customers can be sold into the stock market, as I mentioned. The sum of the maximum daily quantities under the GSAs is currently 47.7 terajoules per day, the dashed line on the graph I showed earlier. Therefore, production above this can be sold into the spot market. The Orbost Gas Processing Plant acquisition includes all the property, plant, and equipment, and the services required to operate the plant. Offers to transfer employment from APA to Cooper Energy will also be made to the existing Orbost operations and technical staff.
As I noted on an earlier slide, Cooper Energy owns 100% of the Manta resource and a number of very interesting Gippsland exploration opportunities. We expect this gas to be processed through the Orbost gas plant, together with any economic resources nearby owned by others. Slide 32 illustrates the Orbost gas plant's performance since 1 January this year. The solid light red line is the customer nominations, and the green shaded area is gas sold to the spot market. Above the production profile in blue is the actual spot gas price for Victoria and Sydney. The key is improving the processing rate stability in the plant and steadily increasing that processing rate. Significant improvements have been made in this regard over the last 9 months or so, and there are opportunities for further improvements. Slide 23.
A detailed plan and team has been assembled to manage the operatorship transfer of the Orbost plant from APA to Cooper Energy. This involves the regulatory approvals and the integration of people and systems, and planning for the future. At this point, I'm gonna hand over to Dan Young, our new CFO, to take you through this funding details.
Thank you, David, and good afternoon, everyone. As you've heard from David, today's announced acquisition of Orbost is transformational for the group, and that includes from a financial management point of view as well. We're very pleased to announce that we've executed commitment papers for a new AUD 400 million, fully underwritten revolving corporate debt facility, partial amortizing, and with a term of five years and one quarter. The loan is an upstream gas and oil reserve-based facility, which is an ideal source of debt financing for Cooper Energy, maximizing upfront debt sizing and at a very competitive cost of funding. The incremental cash flow from Orbost substantially increases Cooper's debt capacity, as is demonstrated by the doubling in available funding from the current circa AUD 200 million facility.
It also includes scope for a further AUD 120 million via an accordion facility to fund additional growth of the business, including Annie. We have a very strong underwriter group. Despite the headwinds for upstream borrowers over the last 2-3 years, we've actually seen a number of new banks seek us out. Indeed, we have a new bank in the underwriter group. This is a testament not just to the East Coast Australian gas market thematic or to the quality of the underlying Cooper credit story, but also to Cooper Energy's current net zero position. It's exciting to see what we can do marketing our net zero gas, but from a funding point of view, it is a key source of competitive advantage.
We are virtually unique worldwide as a currently net zero upstream E&P company, and it presents a real advantage position to secure funding to accelerate organic growth and thus de-risk commercialization of our discovered resource base, or indeed our prospective resources. Turning to slide 26, the terms of our fully underwritten equity raise are set out here. The great majority of the raise comes in the form of a two-for-five entitlement offer, with the addition of a placement of AUD 84 million to deliver an incremental piece for a total raise of AUD 244 million. The offer price is a 10.8% discount to the TERP based on Friday's VWAP of AUD 0.293 per share, which is very competitive compared to recent precedent transactions.
I do wanna say one thing quickly in regards to the retail offering and in view of a significant portion of retail vested investors in our register. The two- for -five entitlement offer is of course mirrored for retail investors, but we have also arranged to ensure retail investors can also top up from shares not otherwise taken up in the retail offering and therefore increase their proportionate interest should they wish to do so. Set out in slide 27, the timetable for the equity raise. The institutional portion of the raise is expected to be completed for all practical purposes tonight, with settlement to occur 10 days later on Thursday week, 30 June. We expect to lift this morning's trading halt and for shares to resume trading on Thursday morning, three days from now.
The retail offer is scheduled to close in roughly two and a half weeks time on Thursday, seventh of July. Turning to slide 28, we present the pro forma impact of the new underwritten debt facility and underwritten equity raise. This is working from our published December 2021 actuals. You can see that our net debt to total book capital goes from 26% to 17%, while our net debt to EBITDA falls from over 2 times to around 1.4 times. I do wanna say thank you to my colleagues and our advisors for all of the work to get today's point with both the new debt facility and equity raise fully underwritten.
More broadly than gearing or leverage data points, the combined impact from the new debt facility and the equity raise is to reset the balance sheet today in combination with the acquisition in a way that really sets up the group to fully fund its organic growth plans and capital needs. This is illustrated in the waterfall chart on slide 29, which I'll spend a minute talking through. This slide sets out a view on funding sources and uses over the next three years through to June 2025. There are two scenarios shown for sources, one in solid green and one in a hatched green. Solid green is based on 50 terajoules a day and spot gas prices of AUD 10 per gigajoule. The upside case is in hatched green based on 55 terajoules a day and a gas price of AUD 15.
The business has around AUD 100 million of cash today, and you'll see that as a solid gray bar at the beginning of the waterfall. Free cash flow from existing operations over the next three years will generate around AUD 200 million plus or minus, which is shown in the first green stacked bar. There is some significant upside to that if Orbost can produce at higher rates into the upper fifties or sixties, or if we see a persistently stronger gas price in the mid- to higher teens or above. Ownership of Orbost releases the business from a significant capital charge, and you see that in the next green bar. This amount includes the upfront purchase consideration and integration costs and net proceeds from the equity raise.
Remember, as David talked about on slide 16, with a relatively fixed cost base, this is an asset with very significant earnings leverage to higher gas prices and higher processing rates. The last two green blocks represent the incremental debt capacity from the new underwritten AUD 400 million facility. The first block represents the incremental debt capacity from ownership of the midstream, namely Orbost. While the second block represents incremental debt capacity that comes from sanctioning our Otway discovered 2C resource at Annie. The last block partly reflects the optionality we've secured in the AUD 120 million accordion feature that I mentioned earlier. Uses are also shown by two scenarios, a base case in solid red for the development of Annie, which David mentioned earlier, plus the BMG abandonment expenditure. While the hatched red is a higher cost-based scenario for both.
Importantly, you can see that we can comfortably fund the deferred payments to APA, including any performance incentives that are triggered if APA can run the plant at higher rates over the coming months, leading up to WorkSafe Victoria's acceptance of our Major Hazard Facility license, as well as the Annie development in the Otway and our BMG decommissioning activity. There is also surplus cash to continue to invest into further appraisal and exploration of the Twin Hub gas footprint, as David has touched on. This reset really sets our balance sheet up to fully fund the group over the next three years, to the point where Annie gets to first gas and the scale of the business is materially higher, and in essence, therefore, is really setting us up for organic growth over the next decade.
With 10 days before the end of our current financial year, a quick word on guidance for full-year underlying EBITDAX. As many of you will be aware, we've twice revised guidance upwards this quarter on the back of improved processing rates at Orbost and the rapid increase in spot gas prices in Victoria and Sydney. This chart demonstrates our leverage to processing rates while holding spot gas prices constant at AUD 40. Based on the operator's latest case, which can be seen in the green bar in the chart, we remain on target to comfortably achieve our latest revised guidance. It's worth coming back to a point that David mentioned earlier, that we're buying Orbost at a multiple of around 4.4x-5.2x EBITDAX, which is, on its own, a very compelling price for midstream energy infrastructure.
It's also highly accretive relative to our own multiple, which is 8.4x our own EBITDAX. I'll now turn it back to David.
Thanks very much, Dan. Slide 32, the growth staircase. The combination of the acquisition of the Orbost plant, the equity raise, and the new and enlarged funding facility enables the progress and delivery of the high-value growth opportunities within the existing portfolio across the two hubs. This is a mix of growing existing production at Sole, Casino, Henry, Netherby. The development of contingent resources such as Annie and Manta, and low risk, quick to commercialize exploration in both basins, and in particular, the offshore Otway Basin. Turning to slide 33 and to wrap up. The Orbost gas plant transaction and funding announced today can be summarized as follows. Firstly, in the Gippsland Basin, we are now fully integrated, which allows us to drive improvements, increases the flexibility available to us to further develop and optimize value.
Secondly, this is across both hubs, the Twin Hub approach we often refer to. Thirdly, Cooper Energy is a clear Southeast Australia gas play at a time when gas is in short supply and there has been a step change in pricing, particularly spot and medium-term prices. Fourth, the transaction is immediately cash flow accretive and earnings accretive. Fifth, the acquisition and funding announced accelerates the Cooper Energy growth staircase, which all up is more than 1.1 TCF of new development opportunities. Finally, Cooper Energy maintains the industry-leading net zero carbon neutral position. On that note, happy to open the lines and take any questions.
Thank you. If you wish to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. If you wish to cancel your request, please press star two. If you're on a speakerphone, please pick up the handset to ask your question. Your first question comes from Nik Burns from Jarden Australia. Please go ahead.
Oh, thank you very much, David. Congratulations to you and the team for getting to this point. I'm sure it's been a long path for you. I've got a few questions if I can. First of all, around the performance payments. Slide eight, you outline the level of performance payments at different gas throughput levels. Can you just clarify what happens if, for example, the plant averages, say 59 terajoules a day through this period? Do you pay just AUD 15 million in performance payments at the 55 TJ level? Or is there some sort of pro-rata adjustment between that AUD 15 million and a higher amount? Thank you.
Well, firstly, thanks for the question, Nik. If I interpret the question right, are you saying is it a straight line relationship between the different step points that we had in that slide? The short answer is yes, it is.
Okay.
It moves in a pro rata dollar with rate. Does that answer the question?
Yes. Yeah, it does. I just wasn't sure if it was a, you know, discrete steps there or was a straight line. No, that makes a lot of sense.
No, it's not a stepwise function. No. Just to play that back. If, for example, it was 54, it wouldn't be 270, it would be a number worked out as the pro rata between 270 and 285.
Perfect. No, that's great. Thank you.
That's probably picked up, I think, on footnote two to that table.
Apologies.
I didn't have a lot of time to read this.
No problem. Thanks for that. And then just in terms of average throughput performance through this period, what are your expectations here? APA obviously has a major incentive to run as high as possible during this period. Do you have any discussions with them around expectations for performance? Do you think we could see new record levels reached here?
It's a good question. Look, expectations or, I think not sure that I would use that word, but we saw through May, they were able to sustain in the mid-60s. That was following the addition of the polishing unit. The polishing unit is currently offline, and we're running in the low 50s. I mean, if it's my judgment call and assuming steady state, stable operations with periodic claims, I would say something in the mid-50s. The way this is structured, APA is also incentivized to increase the rate and importantly, keep those rates as stable as possible.
I think what you wouldn't want to be doing is pushing the rates too hard and then having to come back and rebalance the plants and be down at lower rates for a sustained period. That's, you know, it's the average that we look through here, including when the plant does one absorber or the first or second absorber may be down for cleaning. It really is the average rates. I would be thinking and hoping that we can at least be in the mid-fifties, and it'd be good if we were a little bit higher than that. That's a win-win for both ourselves and for APA.
Great. Just maybe one more and then I'll jump in, back in the queue. Operating cost payments, tolls and tariffs during the operations service period. I think you mentioned upfront about the removal of a capital recovery component. Can you just explain this in more detail, please?
Yeah. I'll say some words and then certainly ask Dan to add in. What we're doing effectively, I mean, our tariff with APA is a capital component. Well, it's not a capital component, it's an operating component, but that's what it's made up of to be a total tariff per gigajoule. Therefore, we owning the plant and equity funding it, all we're paying is the operating cost. In effect, we're netting off the capital component of that tariff. Maybe, I don't know, Dan, if you wanted to add anything and then refer to the chart, which helps tell the story.
Slide 15 that David talked through, that capital charge component of the overall processing rate, and depending on your assumption around processing rates, of course, but that's around AUD 2.90 a gigajoule, and that's the capital charge we released, and that's what generates that AUD 60 million circa uplift in EBITDA that you see on that top right-hand side of slide 15. Does that.
During the operations service period, will you be continuing to pay that capital component?
Well, we'll be paying. The only people we'll be paying it to is ourselves. We'll be continuing to tariff our own gas through our own plant. It's a zero-sum. In that sense, it's a zero-sum game. We're not paying a. The value to us is that capital component, the repayment to APA for upgrading the plant is removed because we're the owners.
Got it.
Through that transition period. Post-completion, we're the owners of the asset, and we receive all the returns from the asset. In a sense, we're paying a tariff to ourselves at that point. What comes off that is only the operating cost. Does that answer the question?
Yeah, it does. Thanks for that, Dave. Appreciate it. Cheers.
Thanks, Nik.
Thank you. Your next question comes from Gavin Allen from Euroz Hartleys. Please go ahead.
Gentlemen, thanks for that. Terrific. Just a real quick one from me. Hoping you can remind me, and I probably should know the answer to this, but I'm just thinking out loud. What APA paid for the plant initially, and then, you know, perhaps further to that, some flavor on what they've spent since on it. Broad strokes is good.
Okay, thanks. Thanks, Gavin. I think we announced the transaction. I'm taxing my memory here, but we announced the transaction with APA, I think, in September 2017. Is that right? Yeah, I've got a head nodding up and down, which means it was right. When we announced that, at that time, there were two parts to it. APA purchased the plant from us, and land and associated infrastructure for AUD 20 million. We entered into an arrangement where they were to upgrade the plant, and we would pay them a tariff based on AUD 250 million. One way to think about it is we effectively paid APA. We agreed to pay APA AUD 270 million.
270 is worked out through a capital charge, which has obviously got a rate of return built into it as well.
Right.
On the day, if you netted it back, it was back to AUD 270 million.
Yeah.
What APA has actually paid for it, I don't know. By extrapolation, they have written down, and they declared what they had written it down, it would be in the order of AUD 500 million, by extrapolation. It's of that order that they have spent on the plant.
Yeah. Okay. Would that sort of correlate in very loose terms to what you think it might cost to replace it?
No. Well, the 500 might.
Not really. Yeah.
We haven't gone and done a full replacement cost analysis, but if I were to draw a line from Athena across to Orbost, and then take account of what's been spent, I think AUD 500 would be a very prudent number. Probably a bit on the low side at the moment, for sure.
Something like that. Yeah. Great. Okay. Terrific, guys. That's it for me. Thanks very much.
Thanks, Gavin.
Thank you. Once again, if you wish to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone. Your next question comes from Nik Burns from Jarden Australia. Please go ahead.
Oh, great. Thanks for taking additional questions from me, David. Just first of all, footnote on slide 16, referring to additional firm capacity may be taken by AGL and have the effect of increasing the ACQ under the Sole GSA. Can you just explain this in more detail? I guess if this mechanism is triggered, could it take away from your exposure to spot gas prices? I guess it's, you know, the whole thesis behind this chart, your exposure there, but just trying to understand the risks of this occurring and effectively increasing that ACQ. Thank you.
Yeah. Good pick, glad to see that somebody's read the footnotes, Nik. You might remember back, we effective from the first of January this year, we transferred some of our supply obligations to AGL from Orbost across to Athena. Under those arrangements, AGL, we agreed to supply AGL maintain the full volumes that we'd originally contracted with them, with a portion of it coming out of Sole and a portion of it coming out of Athena. As the rates at Sole at Orbost increase, AGL have the opportunity to effectively take transfer some or all of that back from Athena back to Orbost or from the Otway back to Gippsland. That's something that we and AGL would work out.
In the event that happens, it releases capacity or uncontracted gas at Athena, which we would then put into the spot market. In effect, it's a zero-sum game. What we're using is our portfolio to meet the contractual commitments to AGL. As our production grows in either the Gippsland or the Otway, that surplus production can go into the spot market, and we can use production in one source to support the production in another source. That is really when we talk about optimizing across the two hubs for the benefit of ourselves and our customers, that's one of the things that we're talking about.
I think the way that we've worked things here with AGL or turn it around the other way, the way AGL's worked things from us, with us, is really highlighting the benefit of two hubs and how we can use that to optimize for both ourselves and meet our contractual commitments and our customers, and optimize the offtake that they get access to.
Great. Thank you.
I know I shouldn't put notes on a graph, but did that answer?
Yeah.
Answer it for you?
Oh, it did. Absolutely. No, that was great. Thanks for that, David. Just another question. About Orbost. After you take operatorship, do you have any plans to undertake any major capital works there, or is it too early to make a call on that?
We don't have any firm plans. We've got a few thoughts. Clearly the focus is to get the Major Hazard Facility first off transferred from... Well, not transferred. For the Major Hazard Facility for Orbost to be awarded to Cooper Energy. Our focus will then be on integrating the people into and welcoming them into Cooper Energy. Our focus will also be very much on ensuring we can maximize the stable, and I emphasize stable, production rates. Once we've got the stable rates, then inching those stable rates up. There's a point at which it's okay, we've inched these up to as far as they can reasonably go. That's through operating, that's good, through good operating practices and optimizing what's there at the moment.
There's the opportunity for us to look at further stepping up the production with, for example, the addition of a third absorber. If the plant was operating at, let's assume it's 60, we were to go and put a third absorber in, you can imagine that would release an extra 25-30 terajoules a day, which we would be able to put into the spot market or contract with whoever we wanted to. That's the way that we're thinking about it. First of all, get the Major Hazard Facility license. Second, get the people on the systems integrated into Cooper. Thirdly, get the rates as stable as possible, then inch the rates up from there, and then there's a step. There's a point at which you make a step. We can make a step change.
That at current, as illustrated on slide 16, you know, the economics of that won't be very hard.
Got it. Thanks for that, Dave. Just quick. One more quick one from me. You've mentioned about the Major Hazard Facility license. Just trying to, and I think you've given a sort of a circa six-month timeline to get that in place. What's the major impediment or issues in relating to that? Is it made easier by the fact that you operate it at Athena?
Yeah, it is made easier that we've already the operator at Athena. WorkSafe Victoria has reviewed our systems, processes. They've been in and done a few audits at Athena, so they know how we work. We're not coming from a standing start. That makes it easier. Another reference point, my understanding, is that when Beach acquired the Origin assets, and that would involve two gas plants, the Major Hazard Facility for those plants was awarded to Beach within 4 months. So yeah, we've taken 6 months. There's a bit of a prudent assessment time-wise. I wouldn't be surprised if it comes in less than that. We're ready to go. We've got a team in place. We've got somebody that knows the Orbost plant, that works closely with APA to lead that team.
It's an independent from existing operations at Orbost and existing operations team and Cooper Energy. It's a dedicated team specifically to manage the integration and award of the MHFL.
Great. Thank you very much, David. Appreciate it.
Thanks, Nik. Thanks for the questions.
Thank you. Your next question comes from James Hood from Cooper Energy. Please go ahead.
Hey, guys. Can you hear me?
Yeah. They introduced you from Cooper Energy.
Is that David? Yeah, yeah. Apparently, I work for you guys now. My question was along the lines of what Nik has already asked, just in terms of what you would do differently at the Orbost gas plant, what APA is already doing. Just further to that question, you said that you potentially spend the CapEx to put in a third absorber. Do you have a feel for the kind of cost for that CapEx expenditure for a third absorber?
Take this as highly indicative, and obviously, it would be subject to, you know, detailed engineering and design. Something in the order of AUD 40 million-AUD 50 million is what we've been pointed to in the past when we've asked and looked at that question.
Yeah. Okay, great. Thanks, guys. That's all for me.
Thank you. Once again, if you wish to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone. We'll wait for any further questions to register. Thank you. There are no further questions at this time. I'll now hand back to Mr. Maxwell for closing remarks.
Thank you very much. Well, I think there's a lesson to be learned from this. You get less questions if you do a webcast in the afternoon than when if you do one in the morning. Look, there's a lot to take on, also I understand that. I'd encourage people to have a close look at the presentation, have a read, listen to what to Dan, and I have shared with you today. Where there are questions that are not answered, please pick up the phone or send an email into, Eddy Glavas' email address is on the ASX announcement. As I said at the outset, this is really a transformational event for Cooper Energy.
Combination of acquiring the gas plant, the funding that we've put in place through both equity and debt at a time when gas prices are high, the outlook for gas is strong, pricing outlook is very strong, and we've got development and exploration opportunities. We might have had a tough period over the last year or two 'cause some things haven't quite gone our way. We might look back in 12 months time and think, "Well, that wasn't so bad because look what's happened." I do want to acknowledge here, APA. I think it hasn't been easy for them and the way in which they've worked with us and we've worked with them, even though it has been a bit of a challenge, is appreciated.
We look forward to welcoming the APA folk into the Cooper Energy family. On that note, thanks very much.