QPM Energy enters administration as Dyno Nobel enforces security

QPM Energy Limited and 16 related entities have entered voluntary administration, with secured creditor Dyno Nobel Limited separately appointing receivers and managers over seven companies holding the group’s gas-producing operations.

Mark Holland and Anthony Connelly of McGrathNicol were appointed voluntary administrators on 7 July. Chris Hill and Ben Campbell of FTI Consulting were subsequently appointed receivers and managers under Dyno Nobel’s first-ranking security over QPM’s gas assets. The appointments leave the administrators responsible for the wider corporate group while the receivers control the secured operating assets.

The officeholders said they intend to work together to maintain operations while conducting an urgent assessment of the group’s future. QPM supplies raw and processed natural gas to domestic customers and manages electricity generation and dispatch into the National Electricity Market.

Its principal asset is the Moranbah Gas Project in Queensland’s Bowen Basin, which QPM acquired in August 2023. The project has operated since 2006 and sources gas from coal seams and waste gas generated by nearby mining operations. The group also manages the gas-fired Moranbah and Townsville power stations.

Dyno Nobel appointed the receivers to protect its position as QPM’s foundation gas customer and secured financier. QPM supplies gas to Dyno Nobel’s Moranbah ammonium nitrate manufacturing facility, and Dyno Nobel said it does not expect the external administrations to interrupt that supply.

Dyno Nobel also said its exposure at 30 June comprised gas prepayments and loans advanced in support of the supply arrangements. About 80% of that funding is recoverable through contracted gas deliveries, supported by QPM’s reported reserves of 304 petajoules on a proved basis, 602 petajoules on a proved and probable basis and 414 petajoules of contingent resources. The Moranbah facility consumes about 7 petajoules annually.

The appointments also place the future of QPM’s planned $196 million Isaac Power Station under review. The company had been developing the 112-megawatt gas-fired plant at Moranbah and had invested approximately $138 million in development, capital expenditure and financing costs by the end of March. The Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility had approved financing of up to $72 million for the project, which was intended to provide fast-start generation capacity to the National Electricity Market.

QPM’s financial statements for the half-year ended 31 December 2025 identified a material uncertainty over its ability to continue as a going concern, with completion of the Isaac Power Station financing forming a central part of its funding plan. The company requested a trading halt immediately before the appointments, and its securities have since been suspended from quotation.

The first meeting of creditors is scheduled for 17 July. The administrators and receivers have not yet disclosed the group’s total liabilities or indicated whether they will pursue a recapitalisation, deed of company arrangement or sale process.