Page 7 - MEOG Week 09 2022

MEOG FINANCE & INVESTMENT MEOG

Bahrain hiring advisors

for asset monetisation

BAHRAIN BAHRAIN’S Oil & Gas Holding Co. (nogahold- considering monetising its oil and gas assets,
ing) is hiring a team of advisors to work on plans including the 112-km A-B Pipeline and the LNG
to monetise oil and gas assets, according to the terminal.
company’s CEO. Bahrain’s efforts to cash in on these assets
Speaking to Bloomberg this week, Mark follow the success of Abu Dhabi National Oil
Thomas, CEO of nogaholding, which controls Co. (ADNOC) and Saudi Aramco, which have
the state’s shareholding in Bahrain’s oil and gas raised tens of billions of dollars in recent years
assets, said: “Everything is on the table for us”, through initial public offerings (IPOs) and the
noting that it would consider public offerings or sale or lease of shares in various subsidiaries.
share sales to private investors. However, Bahrain is likely to compete at
nogaholding was previously the invest- the other end of the market, being home to oil
ment arm of the National Oil & Gas Authority production of just 50,000 bpd from the onshore
(NOGA), which was abolished by King Hamad Awali field, the site of the Gulf Cooperation
bin Isa Al Khalifa in September, with the firm’s Council (GCC’s) first oil find in 1932. It also
functions assumed by the Ministry of Oil. receives a 50% share of the 300,000 bpd pro-
“We’ll take the next six months to develop duced from the offshore Abu Sa’fah oilfield as
the national energy strategy and the operational well as a further 75,000 bpd of Arabian Light
strategy for nogaholding, so by the third quarter crude through the A/B conduit.
we’ll have a very clear picture of where we want Thomas said that nogaholding is continuing
to go,” Thomas said. “Within that, we’ll have appraisal and assessment work for the develop-
done a deep root financial analysis from which ment of the 80bn barrel offshore Khaleej Al Bah-
we’ll decide where we might want to monetise,” rain (KAB) shale deposit, which the Ministry of
he added. Oil anticipates having the potential to produce
The company’s assets include the upstream up to 200,000 bpd.
focused Tatweer Petroleum Co., the 267,000 However, the combination of complex
barrels per day Bahrain Petroleum Co. (BAPCO) geology and its offshore location have raised
refinery – which is currently being expanded to questions about feasibility. Manama, however,
380,000 bpd, a share in the 350,000 bpd Sau- remains hopeful that developmental drilling
di-Bahrain A/B Pipeline and the Bahrain LNG can begin by the end of the year ahead of first
import terminal. oil in 2023. “Commercially what we’re looking at
Thomas’ comments echo those of Bahraini is quite a challenging development,” he said. “It
Oil Minister Mohammed bin Khalifa Al Khal- may have a lot of oil, but it’s going to be difficult
ifa, who also said last year that the Kingdom was and costly to extract,” Thomas said.™

Source: Drillinginfo

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