Alcoa of Australia Declares Force Majeure
As a result of an explosion at Apache Energy's Varanus Island facility, and the disruption of gas supply to its Western Australia facilities, Alcoa of Australia notified its customers that it was declaring force majeure under its alumina supply contracts. The extent of impacts upon its customers is yet to be determined. Alcoa of Australia is part of Alcoa World Alumina and chemicals (AWAC) which is 60-percent owned by Alcoa Inc. and 40-percent owned by Alumina Limited.
On June 3rd at 13:45 Apache reported a pipeline rupture and fire at its Varanus Island gas processing and transportation hub offshore Western Australia. The incident resulted in complete shutdown of Apache's gas production operations at Varanus Island and a declaration of force majeure by Apache to all customers.
Alcoa of Australia is still receiving gas from its other supplier - North West Shelf Gas. Given the supply disruption, the full extent to which alumina production will be affected is uncertain, but Alcoa is making efforts to minimize the impact on production and its customers.
The financial impact to Alcoa Inc.'s second quarter 2008 is expected to be between $0.02 to $0.03 per share. An additional update on the situation will be made on Alcoa Inc.'s conference call following the reporting of its second quarter 2008 results on July 8, 2008.
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