Stokes returns to Beach Energy board

Seven Group Holdings chief executive Ryan Stokes has returned to the board of Beach Energy, replacing Margaret Hall as a designated director of the investment group.

Beach, which is 30 per cent owned by Seven Group Holdings (SGH), announced Mr Stokes would rejoin the board in place of Ms Hall in a brief statement to market today.

Ms Hall, who as SGH energy chief executive is tasked with overseeing SGH’s energy interests in Australia and abroad, will retire from her position at Beach but continue as alternate director to Mr Stokes.

The move represents a swap of sorts, with Mr Stokes previously retiring from the Beach board in November 2021 to be replaced by Ms Hall.

Mr Stokes was alternate director to Ms Hall between December 2021 and today’s announcement.

The move to reappoint Mr Stokes to the board comes as Beach, which is a significant player in the red-hot Perth Basin, grapples with cost blowouts at stage two of the Waitsia gas development, which is 50 per cent owned alongside Mitsui & Co.

In May, the joint venture partners withdrew schedule and capital estimates for the stage two development at Waitsia as a result of mounting cost pressures.

The JV and contractor Webuild had been working to a first production target late in 2023 but said the tight labour market in Western Australia had led it to review cost and scheduling entirely.

Beach and Mitsui also plugged and abandoned their Trigg 1 gas exploration well in the Perth Basin early in July.

The Stokes family are among a flurry of high-profile Australian businesspeople to take an interest in the Perth Basin’s energy potential, where M&A activity ramped up towards the end of last year.

Mr Stokes holds a number of positions within his family’s business empire. These include positions as chair of WesTrac, Coates and Boral, director at Seven West Media and chief executive of the family’s private investment company Australian Capital Equity.

SGH Energy’s other assets include a 15 per cent interest in the Crux gas and condensate field and exploration permits operated by Shell Australia in the Browse Basin; a 100 per cent interest in the Longtom gas and condensate field in Victoria’s Bass Strait; and an 11.2 per cent interest in the Bivins Ranch oil, gas and non-gas liquids producing asset operated by Presidio Petroleum in Texas.