Project Sea Dragon (PSD) has been placed into voluntary administration after the withdrawal of funding by Seafarms Group (SFG), the owner of Project Sea Dragon.
The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors adjudicator determined on February 3, 2023 that a total amount of AUS 13.9 million is payable to Canstruct as per claims of money owed following the suspension of work on PSD in December 2021 and later termination of contracts in April 2022.
“We are extremely disappointed with the decision of the adjudicator in the contractual dispute with Canstruct. Seafarms provisioned $8.7 million for a settlement of this dispute in its 2022 accounts, and has the capacity to cover the balance. We believe the determination to be excessive and are now considering our next steps on this matter, including legal redress,” Seafarms Group CEO, Rod Dyer, said on this decision.
Now the group announced that due to the decision by the ajudicator regarding a construction dispute, the voluntary administration became a necessary step for Project Sea Dragon. “Seafarms’ other existing operations based in Queensland are separate to Project Sea Dragon and as such these operations are not under administration,” Dyer said.
The board of SFG has resolved that it is no longer in the best interests of the company to continue to fund Project Sea Dragon. As a result of the adjudication and the recent withdrawal of funding from SFG, the directors of Project Sea Dragon have resolved to place Project Sea Dragon into voluntary administration.
Project Sea Dragon is a proposed large-scale, integrated, land-based shrimp aquaculture project being developed in northern Australia. It aimed to be developed in up to 10,000 hectares of shrimp production ponds, supported by a series of geographically separate facilities across northern Australia.
