Origin Energy
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| Origin Energy Ltd | |
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| Type | Public (ASX:ORG) |
| Founded | 2000 but parts of the business date from the 19th century |
| Headquarters |  Sydney, New South Wales, Australia |
| Key people | Grant King, MD |
| Industry | Energy |
| Products | Oil, gas and electricity |
| Revenue | ▲ $5.95 billion AUD (2006, [1]) |
| Net income | ▲ $332 million after tax AUD (2006) |
| Employees | ~3500 |
| Website | www.originenergy.com.au |
Origin Energy is an Australian energy company headquartered in Sydney.
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[edit] History
Origin Energy was formed in February 2000 as a result of the demerger of Boral Limited an Australian conglomerate. Boral had interests in energy and building and construction materials. Prior to a demerger in February 2000 the company was known as Boral Limited. The demerger of Boral Limited involved spinning off the building materials business into a separate company and renaming Boral Limited to Origin Energy Limited. The building materials business was then named Boral Limited and was re-listed as a new public company.
Due to Origin having evolved from parts of a conglomerate, the date of inception of the company is difficult to define. Parts of Origin's business can be traced back to the 19th century while Boral limited began in 1946 as Bitumen and Oil Refineries (Australia) Ltd. At the time of the demerger, the largest portion of Origin's assets originated from the acquisition of SAGASCO Holdings Limited, a petroleum exploration, production and gas retailer based in Adelaide, South Australia. SAGASCO's gas retailing business dated back to the 1850s, making it one of Australia's oldest continuously-trading companies.
Boral’s energy interests grew through corporate acquisition and in 1995 were consolidated in the subsidiary company Boral Energy. Further acquisitions were made by Boral Energy before the demerger.[1]
[edit] Core business
Origin Energy is active in a number of sectors in the energy business:
- Oil and gas exploration and production - Origin has conventional oil and gas reserves in the Cooper Basin of South Australia and Queensland and in the Bass strait between Victoria and Tasmania and coalbed methane reserves in Queensland. Outside Australia, Origin is developing the Kupe gas field in the Taranaki Basin of New Zealand
- Retail - over three million retail customers of gas or electricity in Australia, New Zealand and the south Pacific, inclusive of the 800,000 customers of Sun Retail in QLD that were acquired in February 2007.[2]
- Generation - generating electricity from natural gas including Osborne and Ladbroke Grove in South Australia, Mt Stuart Power Station in Townsville and Roma Power Station. Origin does not own any coal-fired power stations. However, its retail division sources a large quantity of power from environmentally unfriendly brown coal-fired sources.
- Gas transportation and distribution - Origin had significant shareholdings in Envestra Limited (17%) and SEAGas pipeline (33%). These shareholdings were sold to APA Group during 2007, along with the assets of Origin Energy Asset Management. OEAM's major asset was its contract with Envestra for the maintenance of the Envestra natural gas distribution network.
[edit] Renewable energy
Origin is active in the renewable energy arena. It has spent a number of years developing:
- Purchase contracts for the acquisition of electricity from Wind farms in South Australia and Victoria including the entire output produced by Pacific Hydro from the Challicum Hills wind farm located near Ararat and the Yambuk wind farm near Portland. Origin Energy is the largest buyer of wind energy in Australia.[3] Origin does not hold any equity positions in Australian wind farms, although its partially-owned New Zealand affiliate, Contact Energy, has equity in New Zealand wind farms.
- A solar energy business using solar cell technology invented by a team led by Professor Andrew Blakers at The Australian National University.[4] Origin Energy expects to be manufacturing its sliver cell technology for the Australian market by 2008.[5]
- Geothermal power, a technology based on the conversion of heat sourced from deep, hot rocks into electricity. Origin's geothermal investment is via a minority shareholding stake in the Australian company Geodynamics. [6] [7]
The commercial success of the solar and geothermal projects is yet to be demonstrated.
[edit] Current Events
On 30 April 2008, BG Group, a global integrated gas major, approached Origin Energy with a proposal to acquire all of the shares in Origin at a cash price of A$14.70 per share. BG Group has advised that the proposal is subject to shareholder and regulatory approvals and other terms and conditions common to transactions of this type. Origin has not yet considered the proposal. Discussions between the parties will take place and shareholders will be advised of the outcome. These discussions may or may not lead to an agreed transaction. Origin shareholders should take no action with respect to their Origin shares, pending further announcement. [8]
[edit] Key executives
- Kevin McCann - Chairman
- Grant King - Managing Director
- Karen Moses - Chief Operating Officer, Australia
- Robb Willink - Executive General Manager, Exploration
- Frank Calabria - Chief Financial Officer
[edit] References
- ^ Origin Energy web site - company history, accessed 21 August 2007
- ^ Origin energy web site, accessed 21 Aug 2007
- ^ Origin Energy wind energy portfolio press release (Sept 2002)
- ^ Solar Energy at the ANU
- ^ Thin-cell solar power soon
- ^ Geodynamics power from the earth
- ^ Geodynamics says it has 'hottest rocks on earth'
- ^ Announcement on the ASX: http://www.asx.com.au/asxpdf/20080430/pdf/318v8x26nkmvcz.pdf
[edit] External links
- Origin Energy - Official Site
- Boral Limited - Boral Website
- Solar cells wait for their day in the sun
- GE Energy, CH2M Hill to build power plant in Australia
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