Investors back Shell, PetroChina takeover of Arrow Energy

Their votes mean Arrow shares will cease trading on the Australian Securities Exchange on July 30, subject to approval from the Federal Court, which is expected to hear the matter a day earlier.

Hours before yesterday's shareholder vote, Arrow announced it had passed the final regulatory hurdle with approval from the National Development and Reform Commission of China. Arrow said 99.26 per cent of votes cast were in favour of the takeover, and 99.66 per cent of votes cast on the demerger of Dart Energy were in favour.

Arrow shareholders will receive $4.70 cash for each of their shares.

CS CSG, a joint venture of Shell and PetroChina, will own Arrow's Queensland coal seam gas assets and domestic power business as well as Shell's CSG assets and its interest in the liquefied natural gas project on Curtis Island at Gladstone. Shell plans to use Arrow's coal seam gas to help improve the economics of its project and develop a second LNG train.

Another LNG hopeful, US energy company Chevron, yesterday announced its second gas discovery in a week about 75 metres of natural gas at the Sappho-1 exploration well in the Carnarvon Basin which it said would underpin its Gorgon and Wheatstone projects in Western Australia.

Shell is set to benefit through its 25 per cent stake in the permit, as will ExxonMobil, which has an identical stake.