POSCO Starts Commissioning of Australian Gas Field... "Increase Production from End of Next Year"

Full-scale Sales After 2Q 2025

POSCO International has begun the commissioning of a natural gas field it invested in Australia. Starting next year, it plans to ramp up production and target the Australian domestic market.

On the 24th (local time), POSCO International announced that it held a completion ceremony for the first gas processing facility at the Atlas gas field, operated by its subsidiary Senex Energy, in Queensland, Australia.

The gas processing facility is essential infrastructure for gas sales. It removes impurities from the produced natural gas, compresses it at high pressure, and then sells it through gas pipelines to power plants and city gas suppliers in eastern Australia.

POSCO International plans to complete the commissioning of the first gas processing facility and the connected gas pipeline by the second quarter of next year and sequentially begin selling the increased gas production. Additionally, it will operate the second and third gas processing facilities in the second half of next year to further increase production. If the expansion project is completed as planned by 2026, the supply is expected to exceed 10% of the domestic gas demand in the eastern Australia region.

Senex Energy, which POSCO International acquired together with Hancock in 2022, plans to expand its annual natural gas production from the current 20 petajoules (PJ) to 60 petajoules, tripling its capacity. Sixty petajoules of natural gas corresponds to approximately 1.2 million tons of liquefied natural gas (LNG) production capacity.

Susan McDonald, Australian Federal Senator and Minister for Resources in the Shadow Cabinet, said in her commemorative speech, "The eastern region of Australia urgently needs to expand gas supply to ensure stable power supply, reduce energy costs, and create jobs. We must quickly supply our abundant gas resources to the domestic market, and this requires more new exploration permits and investments."

Lee Gye-in, President of POSCO International, stated, "We will continuously support Senex Energy to safely complete the production expansion development project."