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also hopes to expand its plant at a later date; and agreement has been reached and it is yet to be
it hopes to push processing volumes up to 50,000 decided what structure the deal might take, SIIG
bpd eventually. said in a filing on the Saudi Stock Exchange.
Such a transaction would mark the latest in
If you’d like to read more about the key events shaping a series of mergers and acquisitions in the Saudi
Africa’s oil and gas sector then please click here for petrochemicals industry. Most recently, Saudi
NewsBase’s AfrOil Monitor. Aramco closed the purchase of a 70% stake in
petrochemicals giant SABIC in June from the
Nigerian gas grants state.
Nigeria wants to encourage the use of com-
pressed natural gas (CNG) as a vehicle fuel, to If you’d like to read more about the key events shaping
reduce its fuel import bill and bring down costs the downstream sector of Africa and the Middle East,
for motorists. then please click here for NewsBase’s DMEA Monitor.
The country’s central bank is offering a
NGN250bn ($648mn) stimulus package that European M&A
aims to make CNG the “fuel of choice” for trans- Premier Oil is in financing talks with its rival
portation, and make LPG the favoured option Chrysaor, potentially leading to a merger
for domestic cooking, captive power and small between two of the UK’s biggest oil and gas
industrial complexes. It also wants to scale up producers.
gas-based industries such as petrochemicals. Bloomberg reported on September 15 that
Investors can access the fund, which has a the company, saddled with just under $2bn of
10-year maximum tenor, at interest rates of no net debt, had held initial talks with Chrysaor on
more than 5%, until the end of February next an all-or-partial merger of the two businesses.
year. After that point rates will rise to 9%. Premier has confirmed these talks, but said its
Nigeria has some 5.3 trillion cubic metres in preference was to follow through with a prelim-
proven gas reserves, according to its own esti- inary deal reached with creditors in late August
mates, but so far investment in gas production to refinance over 45% of its debt.
and infrastructure has been weak. The govern- However, talks with Chrysaor and others on
ment wants to capitalise much more on this alternative financing solutions will nevertheless
resource, by encouraging consumption in many continue, Premier said. High debt levels were a
areas. concern of Premier’s creditors even before the
Nigeria also hopes that using CNG will be pandemic struck. But this has not stopped the
a cheaper option than more traditional motor company from pursuing a takeover of BP assets
fuels. The government has recently ended sub- in the North Sea.
sidies for domestic fuel supplies – a move neces- Meanwhile, PGNiG has continued its Norwe-
sary to spur investment in refining but one that gian buying spree, announcing a deal this week
will increase costs for motorists. to acquire small stakes in two producing fields
Meanwhile in Saudi Arabia, two petrochem- from Royal Dutch Shell for an undisclosed sum.
ical firms are considering a merger after sustain- PGNiG has been building up its position on
ing heavy losses, raising the prospect of further the Norwegian shelf in recent years, obtaining
consolidation of the kingdom’s downstream resources to fill its 10bn cubic metre per year Bal-
industry. tic Pipe project to Poland. The pipeline is due to
Saudi Industrial Investment Group (SIIG) start flowing gas in October 2022.
said on September 20 that its board of direc- In a statement on September 21, PGNiG
tors had approved initial talks on a tie-up with said it had agreed to take a 6.45% interest in
National Petroleum Co. (Petrochem). No the Kvitebjorn field and a 3.225% interest in the

Week 38 24•September•2020 www. NEWSBASE .com P13