• Comet Ridge to acquire Santos' 42.86% interest in Mahalo Gas Project
• EPBC approval received for Mahalo North natural gas development
• NAIF debt funding approved for Mahalo Gas Project

Comet Ridge announced it has entered into a binding, conditional agreement to acquire Santos QNT Pty Ltd's 42.86% interest in the Mahalo Gas Project. This means that, upon completion, Comet Ridge will hold and operate the entire Mahalo Gas Hub of approximately 1,850 km2. The company also received approval under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 for the wholly owned Mahalo North (PLA 1128) natural gas development in Queensland's Bowen Basin. This environmental approval allows Comet Ridge to construct, operate, decommission and rehabilitate up to 68 coal seam gas wells, associated gas compression facilities and gathering lines. Additionally, the Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility (NAIF) successfully completed its Strategic Assessment Phase and Comet Ridge received NAIF Board approval to proceed to the Due Diligence stage to provide debt funding for the Mahalo Gas Project. The Mahalo Gas Project continued to progress Upstream and Pipeline FEED processes during the quarter, with a Final Investment Decision (FID) expected to be reached upon completion of FEED. Comet Ridge also continued to have active discussions with multiple gas buyers during the quarter for additional Gas Sales Agreements (GSAs) to assist with financing the Mahalo Gas Project development capex.

Comet Ridge is looking to expand the sales gas share of the Mahalo Gas Project from approximately 28 TJ/d up to approximately 70 TJ/d, given the recent executed transaction with Santos and plans to bring the northern blocks into production sooner.

Comet Ridge is looking at options to bring in Mahalo North and East earlier than originally planned and pushing the project to between 70 and 75 TJ/d. The company is also working with Jemena to maximise the potential throughput capacity of their 10-inch diameter high pressure pipeline.