Assuming if Santos aims to finish off ESG, would TRU Energy take up OIP as an alternative?
http://www.truenergy.com.au/About/index.xhtml
TRUenergy May Spend $10 Billion by 2020 on Renewable, Gas-Fired Plants
By James Paton - Mar 7, 2011 6:16 PM GMT+1100
TRUenergy Holdings Pty, the Australian electricity supplier owned by CLP Holdings Ltd. (2), said it may invest as much as A$10 billion ($10 billion) in new gas- fired power plants and renewable energy projects by 2020.
Australian electricity providers, including Sydney-based Origin Energy Ltd. (ORG) and AGL Energy Ltd. (AGK), may spend an estimated A$31 billion on new power generation by 2020, Richard McIndoe, managing director of the CLP unit, said in Sydney today.
Power investment in Australia depends on the ?right? government policies to set a price on carbon emissions, he said. ?The emphasis is on punishment, rather than incentives,? he said. ?You?ve got to incentivize people.?
Australia, which burns coal to generate more than 80 percent of its electricity, plans to impose a price on greenhouse gas pollution starting in July 2012 in preparation for a trading system that could begin as early as 2015, Prime Minister Julia Gillard said last month. A cap-and-trade program would give power plants, factories and other polluters a ?very strong? incentive to curb emissions, Gillard said last month.
TRUenergy will need to ?invest a lot more? and an initial public offering for the Australian unit is an option to help fund expansion, Andrew Brandler, chief executive officer of Hong Kong-based CLP, said in September.
While an Australian share sale is ?one of the options? for the Melbourne-based power company, it has ?no immediate plans? for a listing, McIndoe said in an interview today.
Carbon Policies Continued uncertainty about what policies the government will introduce to tackle climate change threatens investment in new power stations, he said in a speech in Sydney earlier today.
?We need the right carbon policy settings -- not just a carbon price,? according to McIndoe.
TRUenergy in December agreed to buy New South Wales state electricity assets, including retailer EnergyAustralia, for A$2.04 billion, doubling its retail customers in Australia to about 2.8 million. TRUenergy also bought three generator- development sites and the rights to trade output from the state- owned Mount Piper and Wallerawang coal-fired power stations.
TRUenergy?s assets include the Yallourn coal-fired power station in Victoria state and the Tallawarra gas-fired plant in New South Wales. The company is also vying for Australian government funding to develop a solar project and has received New South Wales approval to build a second gas-fired plant at Tallawarra that would cost as much as A$330 million.
The Yallourn station in the Latrobe Valley, 150 kilometers (93 miles) east of Melbourne, supplies 22 percent of Victoria?s electricity.
