Beach Energy (ASX:BPT) and AWE Ltd (ASX:AWE) to Present at the 194th Sydney Mining Club

Sydney, Oct 17, 2014 AEST (ABN Newswire) - Presenting a powerful energy double with the big swingers in Australia's natural gas market - Beach Energy (ASX:BPT) & AWE Limited (ASX:AWE)

Beach Energy's Reg Nelson has been Lazarus-like in his resurrection of Beach after it fell into the clutches of a shadowy London based investment group in the 1980s with him ultimately winning a series of long court battles. He has cannily guided Beach to the great success it is today, now Australia's largest onshore oil producer and one of the major suppliers of gas to NSW.

Hear how the policy failure of the NSW Government has created an artificial gas supply crisis in the state, stifling exploration and jeopardising investment. Such things are nothing new to veteran oil and gas explorers and producers like Reg Nelson, CEO and MD of Beach Energy and our second energy livewire for the day being Bruce Clement, MD of AWE Limited.

The Beach story is a saga of vision, perseverance, treachery and ultimately, great success. In a long and decorated career Reg has seen it all and overcome challenges even bigger than those currently on offer in NSW.

Beach is now exploring vigorously for new gas reserves in the Cooper Basin and has identified a massive potential resource deep below the traditional, conventional, reservoirs which have made the region Australia's largest onshore gas basin for more than 50 years.

Bruce Clement's AWE is a major supplier of gas offshore in Otway basin, off Western Victoria and in the Bass Basin in Bass Strait. Natural gas from these fields is piped directly in to NSW, Victoria, and South Australia.

AWE is also operator of big gas assets in the Perth Basin where it operator a very exciting gas play… While drilling the Senecio-3 well AWE discovered the new "Waitsia" gas field in the underlying section representing a huge new play for the north Perth Basin. In fact Clement says it could be the largest conventional gas discovery in Western Australia since the Dongara gas field was discovered in the 1960's. It's right on the Dampier-Perth pipeline and could come into early production, alleviating a gas supply shortage in WA.

With onshore gas exploration in NSW blocked by Government policy the state will remain heavily reliant on interstate supplies into the future. Between them Beach and AWE are two of the key gas providers to NSW with the reserves to support NSW supplies even as the massive Liquefied Natural Gas export facilities being developed in Queensland soak up much of the available gas.

But the NSW natural gas crisis is not due to a lack of prospectivity. Beach Energy and AWE Ltd are a key part of the solution to the NSW gas supply dilemma. Hopefully we will get some people from Macquarie Street along. Two powerful energy stories not to be missed!

To attend the Luncheon, please register on the Sydney Mining Club Website.
http://www.sydneyminingclub.org/