Senex has announced its tenth major domestic natural gas supply agreement, with Australian resources company New Century Resources.
New Century owns and operates the Century Mine, located approximately 250 kilometres north-west of Mount Isa, Queensland and employs more than 250 people in the production of zinc concentrates.
Mr Ian Davies, Senex Managing Director, said Senex was proud to supply a strong regional Queensland customer with around 7 petajoules (PJ) of natural gas over three years.
“Century Mine generates significant state royalties and export earnings and is a critical project in the Queensland Government’s Strategic Blueprint for the North West Minerals Province.
“Senex looks forward to building another strong, long-term and mutually beneficial relationship that supports jobs, the economy and helps meet Australia’s energy demand as it transitions to a lower carbon future.
“Senex also acknowledges APA as an important part of the value chain delivering energy to Mount Isa,” Mr Davies said.
Senex has now signed more than 75 PJ of agreements with customers including Adbri, CleanCo Queensland, CSR Building Products, Opal, Orora and Visy Glass.
APPE said the three year Gas Sales Agreement (GSA) between Senex Energy and New Century Resources Limited was the 108th agreement reached with domestic customers since December 2012.
New Century exports zinc concentrates to 12 smelters on three continents.
APPEA Chief Executive Andrew McConville said Senex gas will be supplied to the Diamantina Power Station in Mount Isa, generating the power required to operate the Century Mine.
“Gas means jobs. Gas means reliability. Gas means a bright future for regional Queensland. Gas has showed how reliable it is throughout the pandemic and with the breakdown of other energy sources, the industry has continued to do the heavy lifting to ensure the lights are kept on, factories kept running and that there is no gas shortfall in the domestic market,” Mr McConville said.
“The market is clearly working with competitively priced gas continuing to deliver for Australia. Domestic users are paying less for Australian gas over the long term than overseas markets and have been doing so for some time.
“The gas being supplied to the region is vital for the development of the Queensland Government’s Strategic Blueprint for the North West Minerals Province.