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award 10-year operational management service shaping the Middle East’s oil and gas sector then
contracts for work on the plant’s auxiliary units. please click here for NewsBase’s MEOG Monitor .
Further north, Mexican officials say that state-
owned Pemex has wrapped up work on the first North America: M&A activity accelerates
phase of the Dos Bocas oil refinery, which is now After a lacklustre start to the year, M&As are
under construction in Tabasco State. The project picking up in North America. (See: US oil and
was 24% complete as of October 18, according to gas M&A activity gains momentum, page 9) This
Oil & Gas Journal. started with Chevron’s move to acquire Noble
Energy, announced this summer and recently
If you’d like to read more about the key events shaping completed, and several large deals have followed
the Latin American oil and gas sector then please click suit.
here for NewsBase’s LatAmOil Monitor . Now all eyes have turned to the shale patch,
where ConocoPhillips has confirmed its acqui-
MEOG: Major opportunity knocks in Saudi sition of Concho Resources. Meanwhile, sepa-
Companies have resumed bidding for work rate news of a potential tie-up between Pioneer
under Saudi Aramco’s giant unconventional gas Natural Resources and Parsley Energy were
development plan after a hiatus caused by the confirmed this week, within days of first being
coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. The state reported.
oil firm is planning to spend $110bn to develop News of the ConocoPhillips-Concho deal
the onshore Jafurah gas field located in the pro- first emerged last week, and were confirmed in Unsurprisingly,
lific Eastern Province, and four engineering, a press release on October 19. Like a number
procurement and construction (EPC) firms are of recent mergers, it is an all-stock transaction, the Permian
understood to have submitted bids for a major illustrating producers’ unwillingness to spend
package. money under current market conditions. The seems to be
In Saudi Arabia, Aramco’s long-term agree- transaction is valued at $9.7bn, and represents
ments (LTAs) reign supreme, with signatories a 15% premium to the companies’ closing share one of the main
receiving near-exclusive access to tenders for prices on October 13, with Concho investors regions where
hydrocarbon development work. While work to standing to receive 1.46 shares of ConocoPhillips
expand production from the supergiant Berri, stock for each of their own. consolidation is
Marjan and Zuluf oilfields is understood to have For ConocoPhillips, which has both conven-
been put on hold, Aramco has ring-fenced Jafu- tional and unconventional operations, this deal currently playing
rah as a project of strategic importance to the will bolster its shale holdings, transforming its
Kingdom, which is keen to ramp up gas output. position in the prolific Permian Basin. out.
When the field reaches its production plateau in Unsurprisingly, the Permian seems to be one
2036, it is anticipated to yield 2.2bn cubic feet per of the main regions where consolidation is cur-
day of sales gas and 550,000 barrels per day (bpd) rently playing out. The acquisition of Noble also
of NGLs and condensates. bolstered Chevron’s position in the Permian’s
Across the border in the UAE, ADNOC Delaware sub-basin, while the merger between
has remained in the headlines by continuing Devon Energy and WPX Energy, announced in
its efforts to exert greater control over the full late September, is also underpinned by a position
hydrocarbon value chain. Over the last month, in the core of the Delaware.
the company has set up two new trading arms, And indeed, the newly announced Pio-
bought crude carriers and divested further neer-Parsley deal is entirely Permian-focused.
from its gas pipeline subsidiary. The moves are The $4.5bn all-stock transaction will create
not only keeping ADNOC’s name in the head- a major Permian player with about $10bn in
lines, but the firm is leading from the front as combined revenues and production of more
other Gulf NOCs seek to monetise assets to free than 550,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day
up cash amid uncertainty about oil prices and (boepd).
demand. Analysts believe that at least a handful of
other major shale players are attractive acquisi-
If you’d like to read more about the key events tion targets.™

P8 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 42 22•October•2020