Page 14 - LatAmOil Week 01 2021

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While Baghdad has given the green light to this attraction of the deal is considered to be QEP’s
year’s $103bn budget, there is still some uncer- assets in the region’s Midland sub-basin. QEP’s
tainty about whether or not Erbil will provide Williston Basin in North Dakota will be consid-
the State Oil Marketing Organization (SOMO) ered non-core and will be used to generate cash
with the required 250,000 barrels per day (bpd) flow or sold off, depending on market condi-
of crude stipulated in that budget. Some sources tions, the companies said. The merger is antic-
are suggesting this may not happen, though ipated to close in the first or second quarter of
KRG officials have said they are ready to begin 2021.
deliveries. Separately, Diamondback announced on
With Iraqi finances on the edge of collapse, the same day that it had agreed to acquire all
the central bank has also devalued the dinar leasehold interests and related assets of Guidon
against the US dollar in a bid to maximise dinar Operating in exchange for 10.63mn shares of its
revenues from dollar-denominated crude. common stock and $375mn in cash. That deal is There is still
In Iran, the state oil firm NIOC has awarded due to close by the end of February. some uncertainty
$1.2bn worth of deals through subsidiaries for Together, the QEP and Guidon deals will
work at on- and offshore fields with the aim of bring Diamondback’s total leasehold interests about whether
ramping up oil production. The award follows to over 276,000 net surface acres (1,117 square
the nearly $1.8bn of contracts awarded to 14 km) in the Midland Basin. Across both the Dela- Erbil will provide
local companies in August for the same pur- ware and Midland basins the company will have
pose. Meanwhile, the country has continued to around 429,000 net acres (1,736 square km). SOMO with the
emphasise drilling by completing a major drill- The Diamondback deals follows several required volumes
ing programme in the prolific West Karoun oil other shale-focused mergers and acquisitions
cluster. (M&As) that were unveiled in the second half of crude oil
of 2020 as operators increasingly saw consoli-
If you’d like to read more about the key events shaping dation as a means to navigate a market experi-
the Middle East’s oil and gas sector then please click encing unprecedented challenges. Indeed, in
here for NewsBase’s MEOG Monitor. an update on a separate deal, shareholders of
Devon Energy and WPX Energy approved the
NorthAmOil: Shale consolidation continues proposed merger between those two companies
Consolidation of the US shale industry con- on December 30, with that transaction set to
tinued over the 2020-21 festive season, with close on January 7.
Diamondback Energy announcing on Decem- Other pending deals due to close in the
ber 21 that it had struck a deal to acquire QEP first quarter of 2021 include Pioneer Natural
Resources. Resources’ acquisition of Parsley Energy and
The all-stock transaction was valued at ConocoPhillips’ takeover of Concho Resources.
around $2.2bn, including QEP’s net debt, which
stood at $1.6bn as of September 30, 2020. If you’d like to read more about the key events shaping
Diamondback is a pure play Permian the North American oil and gas sector then please click
Basin-focused company, and the primary here for NewsBase’s NorthAmOil Monitor .™

P14 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 01 07•January•2021