Page 9 - AsianOil Week 47 2022

AsianOil SOUTHEAST ASIA AsianOil

Jadestone wraps up takeover of

remaining Lemang interest

POLICY ASIA-PACIFIC focused Jadestone Energy has given the significant commercial and devel-
wrapped up the takeover of a remaining 10% opment progress since the initial acquisition
Jadestone now has stake in the Lemang production-sharing con- was announced,” Jadestone CEO Paul Blakeley
complete ownership of tract (PSC) it operates onshore Indonesia, bring- said in a statement. “Activity at the Akatara gas
the project. ing its ownership to 100%. development project is progressing well and
Jadestone bought the interest from PT we remain on track to deliver this key organic
Hexindo Gemilang Jaya and, in return, has growth project for Jadestone in the first half of
released the latter company from unpaid licence 2024.”
obligations and paid a further $500,000, inclu- Akatara holds 18.7mn boe in 2D gross
sive of taxes, that will go to the Indonesian resources, and its development will help Indo-
government. nesia phase out some coal-fired power genera-
The Lemang PSC contains the Akatara gas tion in favour of gas.
field, where Jadestone took a final investment Indonesia has ramped up coal-fired genera-
decision (FID) in June 2022, targeting first gas in tion recently, with the fuel now accounting for
the first half of 2024, the company said. Its launch 61.4% of total power supply, versus 54.5% in
will expand the share of gas in Jadestone’s pro- 2016. This shift, which has been very detrimen-
duction base, thereby reducing its greenhouse tal to Indonesia’s climate objectives, has been
gas (GHG) intensity. supported by a substantial increase in domestic
“We have acquired Hexindo’s interest coal output. But another factor has been declin-
for $0.26 [per barrel of oil equivalent] of 2C ing domestic gas supply, although the govern-
resource, compared to the original acquisi- ment has lofty targets for reversing this trend.
tion cost of $0.70/boe in 2020 – a very attrac- Projects like Akatara will go some way towards
tive bolt-on deal for Jadestone, particularly achieving them. ™

GLOBAL

Saudi, UAE ministers deny talks

of output increase

INVESTMENT DISCUSSIONS and agreements on OPEC+ oil Saudi Arabia’s Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz
production cuts hit the headlines over the past bin Salman has been reported as denying recent
Saudi Arabia and the month and these levelled out with an agreement reports stating that the Kingdom is currently
UAE have denied by the group on October 5 to cut production by discussing an increase in output of 500,000 bpd
seeking any changes to 2mn barrels per day (bpd). This agreement was with other OPEC+ producers.
the October agreement. set to stand until the end of 2023. The minister added that it is no secret that
Leaders of Saudi Arabia, UAE, Iraq, Kuwait, OPEC+ does not discuss any decisions before its
Oman, Bahrain and Algeria all lined up behind meetings, Saudi Press Agency reported.
this agreement, with some adding that it was “a Prince Abdulaziz repeated that the cartel’s
purely technical response based on purely eco- decision to cut production by 2mn bpd will stand
nomic considerations”. The point about this is till the end of 2023. He said: “If there is a need to
that the statement is a counter to a comment take further measures to reduce production to
from the US that the cut would boost Russia’s restore balance between supply and demand, we
foreign earnings and suggested that it had been are always ready to intervene.”
engineered for “political reasons” by Saudi Ara- Meanwhile, UAE Minister of Energy and
bia, hinting at support for Moscow in its invasion Infrastructure Suhail Mohamed Al-Mazrouei
of Ukraine. denied that his country is “engaging in any dis-
The issue arose at the recent COP27 confer- cussion with other OPEC+ members to change
ence in Egypt where OPEC+ members lined the last agreement which is valid until the end of
up to endorse the steep cut to its output target 2023. We remain committed to the OPEC+ aim
agreed earlier in the month. to balance the oil market and will support any
The issue has rumbled on, however, and decision to achieve that goal.” ™

Week 47 28•November•2022 www. NEWSBASE .com P9