Overview
Australia is on the verge of an energy crisis. Inaction by the Australian government on gas and energy security has resulted in a gas market that is very nearly running on empty, with extreme price hikes and the possibility of significant losses in employment and capital. Against the backdrop of a global clean energy transition, natural gas represents a critical fuel for this transition. The switch to renewable energy cannot occur overnight, and natural gas offers an avenue for a gradual transition.
Natural gas represents a low-carbon, low-emission alternative to traditional energy sources, and could even be leveraged for sustainable energy.
BPH Energy (ASX:BPH) intends to do precisely that. An investment company headquartered in Western Australia, BPH has already invested in two highly promising businesses in the energy sector. The first, Advent Energy, is an unlisted oil and gas exploration and production company.
The second, Clean Hydrogen Technologies, has developed a CO2-free method of processing gas into hydrogen and conductive carbon.
BPH has a diversified portfolio with an investment in medical technology company Cortical Dynamics, providing yet another avenue for potential growth.
In February 2024, BPH Energy raised a further AU$2.25 million to execute its next phase of hydrocarbon and Cortical Dynamics funding.
Company Highlights
BPH Energy is an ASX-listed investment company based in Western Australia.BPH holds a 36.1 percent interest in Advent Energy Limited, and with Advent a 19.5 percent interest in Clean Hydrogen Technologies, and a 17 percent interest in Cortical Dynamics.Clean Hydrogen Technology is in the process of upscaling into a much larger commercial operation.Cortical Dynamics has the potential to expand its technology not just into the EU marketplace, but globally thanks to a licence and cooperation agreement with Philips.Due to the predicted gas supply shortfall, Advent Energy’s PEP11 asset has generated significant interest among investors and displays the potential for a significant uplift in value.PEP11 also has the potential to fill the gap represented by the impending gas shortage.BPH Energy’s investee company Cortical Dynamics has secured FDA 510(k) clearance in the USA for its flagship technology, the Brain Anaesthesia Response Monitor or BARM system version 1.
Key Investments
Advent Energy
An unlisted oil and gas exploration company based in Western Australia, Advent maintains two major assets. The offshore Petroleum Export Permit 11 (PEP11) represents its most compelling asset. Jointly owned by Advent subsidiary Asset Energy (85 percent) and Bounty Oil & Gas NL,(15 percent) the exploration area covers 4,649 square kilometers.
PEP11’s estimated prospective recoverable gas resources is 5.7 trillion cubic feet. With this resource alone, BPH and Advent could potentially fulfill the energy needs of most of Victoria and New South Wales for the next several decades. Advent is in the process of applying to the National Offshore Petroleum Titles Administrator (NOPTA) to enable drilling, and recently succeeded in a Federal Court Appeal.
Advent also holds Retention Lease 1, an onshore permit in the Bonaparte Basin.
Highlights:
Well-positioned Assets: PEP11 is situated less than 50 kilometers from the Sydney-Newcastle greater metropolitan area. In addition to this:The Sydney Basin is a proven hydrocarbon basin with excellent potential for further discovery of natural gas.It represents the closest potential carbon storage (geosequestration) area to NSW carbon sources which collectively represent 30 percent of Australia’s total CO2 output.PEP11 may also have potential as a CCS (geosequestration) project in the Sydney Basin.Majority Ownership: Asset Energy holds an 85 percent stake in PEP11.A Proven Petroleum Basin: Ongoing hydrocarbon seeps have been confirmed in PEP11 along with geophysical indications of escaping gas. The asset’s prospectivity is supported by the seismically-indicated gas features historically observed by Advent and a 2011 geochemical report.
Clean Hydrogen Technologies
Based in the United States, Clean Hydrogen Technologies (CHT) leverages its unique catalysts alongside a bespoke engineering process to generate clean hydrogen and conductive carbon from natural gas. The technology uses a process called thermo-catalytic pyrolysis, which combines heat, and a catalyst and has no oxygen. Importantly the process produces no CO2 emission. CHT is currently in the process of commercialization, announcing in February 2024 that it has moved from proof-of-concept to production.
Highlights:
Patents: Clean Hydrogen has filed two comprehensive patents in the United States with plans to file additional patents in the coming months.US-focused and Funding Potential: Clean Hydrogen plans to operate primarily in the United States, allowing it to leverage the federal government’s $9.5-billion hydrogen industry investment and $1.2-trillion infrastructure investment and Jobs Act.High Investment Potential: BPH Energy with Advent has a 19.5-percent stake in Clean Hydrogen.These investments have the capacity to substantially increase in value with the burgeoning hydrogen market.
Medical Technology Investment
Cortical Dynamics
Cortical Dynamics is an Australian neurotechnology developer and medical device manufacturer focused on developing the next generation brain function monitors by employing the latest theories and technologies in the field.
Headquartered in Perth, Western Australia, Cortical Dynamics is focused on commercializing its core product, the Brain Anaesthesia Response Monitor System (BARM), which was developed with the objective of better detecting the effect of anesthetic and analgesic agents on human brain activity. BARM aids anesthetists in keeping patients optimally anesthetized and pain-free during operations using general anesthesia.
BARM was specifically developed to solve several problems associated with anesthetic and analgesic delivery in the operating theater and negative post-operative consequences. Its proprietary algorithms are based on innovative developments in understanding how the brain’s rhythmic electrical activity or EEG is produced.
Highlights:
Physiology-based algorithm: Unlike other monitors, BARM’s algorithms are based on the individual patient’s physiological processes that produce electrical activity in the brain, providing more interpretable and personalized monitoring of their response to anesthetic agents.Global patents: Cortical has an extensive and growing global patent portfolio, and has secured FDA 510(k) clearance in the USA for its flagship technology, the Brain Anaesthesia Response Monitor or BARM system version 1.Regulatory Approvals: BARM version 1 is approved by regulatory bodies in Australia, the European Union and Korea. However, Cortical will be commercializing version 2, which is an enhancement of version 1 made possible through a technical partnership with the Austrian Institute of Technology in Vienna.Business Model: Cortical intends to sell BARM V2 devices with associated recurring sales of the disposable single-use head sensors to hospitals or day surgeries, internationally.
BARM Sensors
World-class Team: A team of experienced researchers, biomedical engineers and corporate financiers make up Cortical Dynamics, with a global network of key opinion leaders and clinicians advising the company on the development of the BARM technology based on real challenges they face in the operating room.Philips Partnership: Cortical Dynamics has a non-exclusive license and cooperation partnership with global medical industry player Philips Electronics North America to interface the BARM system with Philips’ operating theater monitors.Artificial Intelligence App: Partially funded through a grant, the Cordyan is an AI-based app that has been developed to help clinicians, researchers and hospitals better understand the implications of using anesthetic agents on humans.
Management Team
David Breeze — Managing Director and Executive Chairman
David Breeze is a corporate finance specialist with extensive experience in the stock broking industry and capital markets. He has been a corporate consultant to Daiwa Securities, manager of corporate services for Eyres Reed McIntosh, and state manager and associate director for the stock broking firm BNZ Norths. Breeze is a fellow of the Institute of Company Directors of Australia. He has published in the Journal of Securities Institute of Australia and has also acted as independent expert under the Corporations Act. He has worked on the structuring, capital raising and public listing of more than 70 companies involving more than $300 million, covering a range of areas including oil and gas, gold, food, manufacturing and technology. Breeze is chairman of Grandbridge Limited, a public investment and advisory company and MEC Resources, a public company investing in exploration companies that target potentially large energy and mineral resources. He is also chairman of Advent Energy.
Tony Huston
Tony Huston has been involved for over 35 years in engineering and hydrocarbon industries for both on and offshore exploration/development. His early career experience commenced with Fitzroy Engineering, primarily working on the development of onshore oil fields. In 1996, Huston formed his own E&P company on re-entry of onshore wells primarily targeting shallow pay that had been passed or ignored from previous operations. This was successful and the two plays opened up 15 years ago and are still in operation. His focus over the last 10 years has been to utilize new technology for enhanced resource recovery, which has been demonstrated in various fields, including US, Mexico, Oman, Italy and Turkmenistan.
Charles Maling
Charles Maling was formerly the communications officer for the Office of the Western Australian State Government Environmental Protection Authority, advising the chairman of the EPA on media issues. Maling has worked with the Western Australian State Government Department of the Environment for 14 years and a further eight years for the EPA. His administrative roles included environmental research (including a major study on Perth Metropolitan coastal waters and Western Australian estuaries) environmental regulation and enforcement, and media management.
Dr Sunil Nagaraj – Chief Scientist (Cortical Dynamics)
Dr. Sunil Belur Nagaraj obtained his master’s degree from the University of Victoria in Canada in 2010; and doctoral degree from University College Cork, Ireland in 2015. His doctoral research centered around the development of AI-based real-time brain monitoring, utilising EEG recordings to monitor brain activity. After a role as a postdoctoral fellow at the Harvard Medical School/Massachusetts General Hospital in the USA. Nagaraj assumed the position of an assistant professor of medicine at the University Medical Centre Groningen in The Netherlands for two years. Concurrently, he dedicated three years to working as a scientist at Royal Philips, where he specialised in sleep disorders at the Innovation Forum, highlighting its potential to provide future insights into heart-brain connectivity.
Throughout his career, Nagaraj has demonstrated exceptional research acumen, with a patent and 21 high-impact journal articles to his name, amassing over 650 pioneering research papers and has been recognised through several national and international grants, enabling him to conduct cutting-edge studies that contribute significantly to the advancement of medical technology.