Page 7 - AsianOil Week 43

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Petroleum owns the remaining 30%. The part- ners won the licence in the 2017 Indonesian Licence Round. Premier Oil said at the time of the award that the partners intended to acquire 3D seismic in the initial three-year exploration term. The long-stop date for the deal is March 31, 2020.
KrisEnergy said the terms of the deal set out in the letter of offer were subject to a final sales and purchase agreement (SPA). The deal is also subject to government approval as well as due diligence by the acquiring party.
The sale, which KrisEnergy has said is in line with its strategy of mitigating risk and reducing exploration capital expenditure, comes as the company strives to right its finances.
KrisEnergy said on October 22 that it would default on paying redemption amounts for its notes in order to conserve funding. The com- pany sought and received a three-month court protection order against its creditors in Singa- pore in September, with the order set to expire on November 14.
These redemption amounts comprise the principal and interest payable for its S$130mn ($95.4mn) 4% senior unsecured notes due 2022, the S$200mn ($146.8mn) 4% senior unsecured
notes due 2023 and the principal payable under the S$139.5mn ($102.4mn) senior secured zero-coupon notes due 2024.
KrisEnergy said: “As part of the restruc- turing process, the company is working closely with its advisors to conserve all available cash to meet [its] funding require- ments during the restructuring period to protect the interest of all stakeholders while a holistic and equitable restructuring pro- posal is worked on.”
The company’s total debt stood at S$558.8mn ($410.2mn) as at June 30. Trading in KrisEnergy shares has been suspended since August 14.™
Turkmenistan to extend Petronas’ Block 1 PSC
PROJECTS & COMPANIES
MALAYSIAN Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad has said Turkmenistan will extend state-owned Petronas’ production-sharing con- tract (PSC) for offshore Block 1 in the Caspian Sea by 10 years until 2038. The PSC for the natural gas block was originally awarded for 32 years in 1996.
Mohamad said he had discussed the matter with Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdimu- hamedov on October 27, during a two-day offi- cial visit to Turkmenistan.
“[Berdimuhamedov] expressed his wish that Petronas continue to be active here, and he men- tioned a further 10-year extension,” Mahathir told a press conference that day.
Mahathir said the extension demonstrated Ashgabat’s satisfaction with Petronas’ develop- ment efforts and that he was confident the state major could win further concessions in the Cen- tral Asian state.
Malaysian Economic Affairs Minister Seri Mohamed Azmin Ali tweeted the same day that the company had invested $10bn in the country to date. Ali added that he had been briefed by Petronas Carigali Turkmenistan CEO Ruslan Abdul Ghani at the Ashgabat office that day.
Malaysian Ambassador to Turkmenistan Roseli Abdul said on October 26 that Mahathir’s’s
visit would consolidate Petronas’ involvement in Turkmenistan’s upstream.
“Tun Dr Mahathir’s main focus in this visit [is] to enhance economic co-operation, espe- cially in the oil and gas industry. Both leaders are also expected to discuss regional and global issues,” he told reporters.
Roseli noted that in the eight years since the Malaysian government had opened its embassy in Ashgabat, diplomatic officials had “worked closely with Petronas Carigali Turkmenistan for the interests of the nation, besides also exploring new fields such as trade and commerce, tourism and education.”
Turkmenistan has estimated proven natural gas reserves of 20tn cubic metres, behind only Russia, Iran and Qatar.
Petronas has switched the focus of its upstream capital expenditure to focus on for- eign projects in recent years. Of the MYR27.3bn ($6.53bn) invested on upstream projects in 2018, 69% went on overseas developments.
Fitch Ratings said in September that it pre- dicted Petronas’ capex to remain around MYR50bn ($11.96bn) per year over the next five years. Upstream investment is projected to total MYR167.6bn ($40.1bn) over that time frame.™
Week 43 30•October•2019 w w w . N E W S B A S E . c o m P7