Verbrec (ASX: VBC) has secured more than $16 million in new energy security contracts with seven clients across Australia and Papua New Guinea, according to Small Caps.
The largest is a $6.8 million engineering, procurement and construction agreement covering inline inspection facilities on a 150-kilometre gas pipeline in southern Queensland.
A further $7.2 million spans pipeline, compression and operations work nationally. Small Caps reported that tranche includes an owner’s engineer role on the EPC phase of a South Australian pipeline realignment, reactive maintenance on pipelines in the Northern Territory and Queensland, and a two-year extension covering four Victorian pipelines. The Victorian scope covers surveillance and patrolling, cathodic protection monitoring, coating surveys, supervision of third-party works, engineering services and basic repairs.
Verbrec has begun early design on a $1.3 million contract for compression and pipeline projects in Western Australia’s mid-west, covering detailed design, pipeline licence advice, environmental studies and landholder access work.
No value, client or project was attached to the Papua New Guinea component in the Small Caps report.
Currency is not labelled in that report. Verbrec is Brisbane-headquartered and ASX-listed, so the figures are presumed Australian dollars. Exepreneur has not confirmed it.
Alliance adds $1.6m
Subsidiary Alliance Automation booked a further $1.6 million in electrical, control system and cyber security work on operating asset awards with Queensland energy companies. Small Caps described Alliance as one of Australia’s largest independent providers of digital transformation, operational technology cyber security and industrial automation integration.
Verbrec signed in November to acquire Alliance from Telstra Group (ASX: TLS) for $5.5 million upfront, adding more than $60 million to annualised revenue. The combined group runs 700 staff across 18 locations in Australia and New Zealand.
$36m since the financial year opened
Adding a $21 million bi-directional upgrade contract from the Northern Territory’s Power and Water Corporation takes Verbrec past $36 million in energy security contracts since the start of the financial year, Small Caps reported. That project targets first commercial gas from the Beetaloo sub-basin.
The contracted work covers more than 2,000 kilometres of Australian gas pipelines and carries multi-year recurring revenue.
The four itemised awards sum to $16.9 million against a stated total of more than $16 million. Exepreneur calculated that sum from the figures in the report, which does not specify whether the Western Australian contract sits inside or alongside the $7.2 million tranche.
Beetaloo and the data centre proposals
Verbrec said it is “uniquely positioned” for a period of sustained reinvestment in Australia’s gas system, starting with the onshore Beetaloo sub-basin 500 kilometres south-east of Darwin, Small Caps reported.
Beetaloo’s development has drawn data centre proposals from as many as a dozen proponents at sites near Darwin and in other remote regions, and could attract up to $40 billion in private investment, according to the same report. It cited Northern Territory government material putting Beetaloo’s potential economic value above $17 billion over 20 years through royalties, employment and business growth.
Western Australian biomethane
Verbrec completed a biomethane potential study for Western Australia’s Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development. The study assessed how much renewable gas the state could produce from waste, sewage and crop residues, what that resource is worth, and what the first projects would require to be built, Small Caps reported.
The work follows a contract for New Zealand’s Clarus energy group on that country’s first large-scale biogas upgrading facility at Broadlands. A detailed feasibility study for a new Auckland biogas facility was announced earlier this year.
The Australian Energy Market Operator has forecast gas shortfall risks in southern Australia under extreme peak day demand from 2029, with additional supply needed in most scenarios from 2030 as legacy southern fields decline, Small Caps reported. Verbrec’s 2,000 kilometres of contracted pipeline sit on the supply side of that forecast.
