Let’s Strike a deal over access to private land

Aspiring gas producer Strike Energy is calling for co-operation with Mid West landholders as it pushes ahead with plans to build a $2.3 billion urea plant in Geraldton.

Construction of the 1.4 billion tonne fertiliser manufacturing facility, dubbed Project Haber, is expected to start in 2023 and take three years to complete.

But Strike Energy chief executive Stuart Nicholls said the company could only make the leap from explorer to producer with continued access to private land.

“Without access to land, and being able to conduct seismic activities and drill wells, we will not be able to bring the natural gas and geothermal energy to the surface, in order to make low carbon urea fertiliser for the farms around us,” Mr Nicholls said.

“So there is a symbiosis between Strike as a company and our landholders and the way that we interact, and we really do treasure those relationships and take them very seriously.”

Mr Nicholls made the comments at the McIntosh & Son Mingenew Midwest Expo, where he gave a talk on the progress of Project Haber.

He said the facility — which will help commercialise Strike Energy’s gas resources in the Perth Basin — could not be built without the support of local communities.

“We’re going to need access to land from time to time, and we’re going to need the co-operation of the local councils and communities as we use local roads to move our equipment around,” Mr Nicholls said.

“We’d like to do that in the most sustainable and responsible manner possible.”

Strike Energy has partnered with Warrego Energy in the development of its West Erregulla gas field in the Perth Basin — south-east of Dongara — which is underpinned by cornerstone supply contracts with customers including Alcoa and Wesfarmers.

Gas will be piped 120km from the gas field and turned into ammonia and urea in the Geraldton industrial suburb of Narngulu, south of Iluka Resources’ operations.

Strike Energy announced plans for Project Haber early this year after gaining a long-term lease over a 60ha site, where it intends to build its own rail siding.

The design also includes an 800-kilotonne per annum ammonia production train, 300-kilotonne on-site urea storage, power and steam generation.

Fertiliser produced at the plant will be sold direct to local farms, with excess product to be transported by rail to ships at Geraldton Port for movement to the east coast.

Geraldton Port alone imports more than 260,000 tonnes of fertiliser a year, with the Wheatbelt region accounting for about 30 per cent of Australia’s urea consumption.

Mr Nicholls said the facility would displace about $1b of urea imports from countries such as Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Russia and China.

He said the fertiliser produced would be “some of cleanest and greenest made anywhere in the world”, adding that Strike Energy had committed to achieving net zero carbon emissions by 2030.

“That means that we’ll be driving down the carbon intensity of broadacre farming, and that will happen at the most impactful end here in WA, where we will be delivering fertiliser from plant, by truck, straight to farm,” Mr Nicholls said.

“We’ll be using not only the best technology in the world for ammonia creation and ultimately urea creation, but we’ll also be integrating green hydrogen.

“We’ll be building our own hydrogen electrolyser, utilising hopefully our geothermal renewable electricity, but (also) some of the wind energy as well, to put about two per cent initially of the hydrogen feedstock into that fertiliser from green energy sources.

“It means that we will be developing fertiliser that is some 50 to 70 per cent less carbon intensive than the stuff that you buy today.”

Transportation and logistics studies by engineering firm GHD support Strike’s claims Project Haber can be WA’s lowest-cost source of urea fertiliser for south-east Australia and WA.

Mr Nicholls said Project Haver would generate $8.4 billion gross domestic produce over the estimated 30-year life of the plant, attracting 715 new residents to the Mid West and generating 1500 jobs during construction.

He insisted Strike Energy had no plans to engage in fracking in the Mid West, though stopped short of committing to making the region a “no-go” fracking zone when pressed by a member of the audience.

“We did make a public statement which that we had no intentions to hydraulically stimulate or use fracking technology in the Perth basin,” Mr Nicholls said.

“The economics of unconventional gas won’t work in the Perth basin, so there’s actually no economic incentive to even contemplate doing that.”