Monday, 9 May

Origin Energy expands to Chile

Origin Energy announced today that it acquired a 40% stake in the leading Chilean geothermal exploration company, Energia Andina S.A. (EASA). The remaining 60% of the company will continue to be owned by Antofagasta Minerals S.A. (AMSA). Origin acquired the 40 per cent stake in EASA from Empresa Nacional del Petróleo (ENAP) following a competitive bidding process run by ENAP.

Origin Chief Development Officer, David Baldwin said, "With this investment in EASA we have further expanded our geothermal portfolio. We look forward to working with AMSA and contributing Origin's geothermal experience to successfully develop EASA's portfolio of geothermal exploration projects." In addition to its investment in EASA, Origin was awarded the Sorik Marapi geothermal concession in Indonesia last year with Tata Power of India, in consortium with PT Supraco Indonesia (See my 6 September 2010 Blog Entry for information on this). Through its 52 per cent interest in Contact Energy, one of New Zealand's largest producers of geothermal electricity, Origin has exposure to 290 MW of geothermal generation and 364 MW of geothermal development. Origin also has interests in a number of geothermal exploration joint ventures located in the Cooper Basin, South Australia, including its partnership with Geodynamics in the Innamincka Deeps and Innamincka Shallows Projects (see my 13 April 2010 entry for more on these projects).

EASA, which was founded in 2008, has established a portfolio of eight geothermal exploration projects in the Northern and Central regions of Chile, covering a total of 553,400 ha. The following is a picture I copied from their web site. It looks like a nifty chopper.

Chile is located on the Pacific 'Ring of Fire' and has considerable prospective geothermal hot spots, estimated to make up 60 per cent of the total Latin American geothermal resources. Preliminary assessment of the geothermal potential of Chile indicates a possible 16,000 MW of resource available.

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