Page 6 - AsianOil Week 41 2022

AsianOil EAST ASIA AsianOil

CNOOC eyes sale of North Sea assets

to Equinor

INVESTMENT CHINA’S state-owned CNOOC is mulling the region, which it entered in 2013 with the acquisi-
sale of UK oil assets to Norway’s Equinor, the tion of Canada’s Nexen. The $15bn purchase was
The main asset under Norwegian press reported on October 17, citing at the time the biggest foreign business takeover
consideration is the sources as saying the deal price was NOK20- by a foreign company. Nexen changed its name
Buzzard field. 30bn ($1.9-2.9bn). to CNOOC International in 2019. ™
China National Offshore Oil Corp (CNOOC)
holds interests in a number of UK North Sea
fields including Buzzard, one of the largest in the
region, as well as Golden Eagle, Scott and Tel-
ford. According to Norway’s Dagens Naeringsliv
newspaper, Equinor is “one of at least two com-
panies” bidding for the assets. Analysts have pre-
viously speculated that Harbour Energy, NEO
Energy, Waldorf Production and Ithaca Energy
would be among the likely contenders. Buzzard
in particular is seen as a promising acquisition
target.
In March, Reuters reported that Bank of
America had been hired to undertake the for-
mal sale of the assets. But the following month
CNOOC said it had no plans to pull out of the

SOUTHEAST ASIA

Petronas, TotalEnergies, Shell sign

production contract for Malaysian block

PROJECTS & MALAYSIA’S Petronas, France’s TotalEnergies the development of the Rosmari-Marjoram gas
COMPANIES and Shell have signed a production-sharing fields off Malaysia’s coast. Shell has an 80% oper-
contract (PSC) for Block SB 2K off the coast of ating interest in the project, while Petronas holds
Drilling plans are Malaysia’s Sabah state. the remaining share. The fields are expected to
already being Situated in waters up to 3,000 metres deep start up in 2026 and flow 800mn cubic feet
announced. and spanning 1,952 square km, Block SB 2K is (22.65mn cubic metres) per day. ™
located in a prolific area where there is a proven
hydrocarbon basin with promising develop-
ment potential, according to Petronas. Under
the terms of the contract, TotalEnergies will
operate the block with a 35% interest, while Pet-
ronas will take a 40% stake and Shell will control
25%.
Petronas’ senior vice president for petroleum
management in Malaysia, Mohamed Firouz
Asnan, said the signing of the contract marked
the completion of a licensing round for five ultra-
deep water blocks off Sabah.
“A total of four wells are expected to be drilled
in these ultra-deepwater blocks in 2022 and
2023, to explore within this emerging hydrocar-
bon province,” Asnan said.
The latest award comes after Shell and Pet-
ronas decided last month to push ahead with

P6 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 41 18•October•2022