Page 10 - MEOG Week 29

MEOG F inan C e & in V estment MEOG

RIL, Aramco deal delayed

saudi araBia RELIANCE Industries Ltd (RIL) has blamed company to declare itself free of net debt.
current economic headwinds for delays to the Ambani said: “Our equity requirements have
planned sale of a 20% stake in its oil-to-chemi- already been met. Nevertheless, we at Reliance
cals (OTC) business to Saudi Aramco. value our over two-decade long relationship with
RIL, which operates the world’s largest down- Saudi Aramco and are committed to a long-term
stream complex in Jamnagar in Gujarat State, partnership.”
announced in August 2019 that state-owned The chairman said RIL would seek regulatory
Aramco had agreed to invest in its refining, pet- permission to spin off its OTC business in order
rochemicals and fuels marketing businesses. The to facilitate the deal with Aramco, adding: “We
Middle Eastern oil giant was expected to pay expect to complete this process by early 2021.”
$15bn for the stake. The chairman said other international com-
RIL chairman Mukesh Ambani told share- panies had approached RIL to partner in the
holders on July 15, however, that “unforeseen petrochemical space.
circumstances in the energy market and the He added: “These potential partnerships will
COVID-19 situation” meant the deal was no help us build competitive manufacturing capac-
longer on track to meet the “original timeline”. ity at our existing sites to serve the deficit Indian
He did not provide any details of when or market that still depends on large-scale imports
even if the deal, which was initially expected to of chemicals.”
be wrapped up by March, might go through. Reuters quoted four unnamed sources famil-
The Indian conglomerate has some financial iar with the deal as saying that the two sides had
manoeuvring room after raising almost $30bn failed to agree on a price for the stake. Aramco
via external and internal share sales. Google, for is understood to be pushing for a price review,
example, bought a 7.7% stake in Reliance Jio on given this year’s oil price crash and the likeli-
July 15 for $4.5bn. hood that international oil prices will remain
These financial efforts have allowed the depressed for a number of years.™

P ro J e C ts & C om Panies

Work complete on Oman’s RHIP

oman BRITISH oilfield services company Petrofac had been reduced by about 20% to $3.7bn, a
announced this week that it had completed work statement from the Ministry of Oil & Gas
on the onshore Rabab Harweel Integrated Pro- (MOG) noted the completion of the “$4.7bn”
ject (RHIP) in Oman, nearly a year to the day project – RHIP’s original price.
since production began. The MOG added that gas injection was being
The company said: “Our Rabab Harweel used to produce gas and condensate from the
Integrated Project (RHIP) team has received the Rabab field and oil from the Harweel field. RHIP
completion certificate from Petroleum Develop- has a production capacity of 50,000 bpd of oil
ment Oman (PDO) acknowledging successful and 1.8 bcm per year of sweet gas.
delivery of the project.” Petrofac acted as the engineering and pro-
Petrofac won the contract worth $1.25bn in curement contractor on RHIP as well as the
March 2014, calling for miscible gas injection ongoing Yibal Khuff project.
and partial sour gas recycling to produce oil and Local firm Galfar Engineering & Contracting
gas from the Harweel cluster. Harweel is located worked alongside Petrofac, while SNC Lavalin’s
in the south of Petroleum Development Oman’s wholly owned subsidiary Kentz Overseas was
(PDO) giant Block 6 concession, which covers awarded a deal in 2017 to provide commission-
90,000 square km of the sultanate’s onshore ing support services to PDO, including in bring-
territory. ing RHIP on stream.™
PDO has previously described RHIP as the
“largest capital project and largest reserve-add”
in the company’s history, containing more than
500mn barrels of oil equivalent (boe).
State-backed PDO kicked off production at
RHIP in late June 2019, with additional wells
coming online shortly after.
The project’s start-up was on schedule,
though while PDO had said two months prior
to the start of operations that costs for the project

P10 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 29 22•July•2020