Page 15 - EurOil Week 35

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Malaysia’s DNeX to consolidate

control over Ping Petroleum

UK MALAYSIAN energy and IT services provider Avalon field, expected to be tied back to an exist-
Dagang NeXchange (DNeX) has dropped plans ing platform. It has additional exploration and
Earlier DNeX had to shed its 30% stake in North Sea-focused Ping production operations in Malaysia.
wanted to sell the Petroleum, instead opting to buy the rest of the DNeX did not say how much it was prepared
stake. company. to pay to gain sole control over Ping. But it did
In a filing on August 26, DNeX said it had say it intended to fund the deal using cash and
signed a heads of agreement (HoA) with Ping, new shares. The HoA is not binding, and DNeX
offering to buy out the owners by acquiring their will have to sign a sales deal with shareholders to
remaining 70%. The offer will remain on the acquire the company.
table until the end of October. “The proposal will enable DNeX to benefit
DNeX had said in July it wanted to divest from Ping’s future earnings, in view of Ping’s
its 30% interest in Ping, which it acquired in potential to grow organically with its well-bal-
2015 for $10mn. Ping is partnered with fel- anced portfolio of production, development
low Malaysian firm Hibiscus Petroleum at the and exploration assets,” DNeX said. It estimated
Anasuria field cluster in the central North Sea Ping’s proven and probable reserves at 24.8mn
off the UK. The fields – Teal, Teal South, Guil- barrels of oil equivalent (boe).
lemot and Cook – deliver oil to the Anasuria The move by DNeX comes after the company
floating production offloading and storage reported sustaining MYR24mn ($5.8mn) in
(FPSO) vessel. losses in the second quarter. Its revenues for the
Ping is also involved in the central North Sea’s three months were down 14% at MYR62mn ™

OMV Petrom takes parent’s stake

in Bulgarian oil project

BULGARIAN ROMANIA’S OMV Petrom has completed part of its wider withdrawal from the European

the purchase of a 42.9% stake in theoffshore upstream sector.
The project is operated Han-Asparuh exploration block in Bulgaria “This acquisition is an important step in our
by France’s Total. from its Austrian parent firm OMC. The project’s strategy to expand our upstream operations in
operator is French major Total (57.1%). the region,” OMV Petrom said, annoncing the
In 2012, the Bulgarian government awarded deal’s closure. “OMV Petrom has been active in
the Han-Asparuh exploration block to the con- the Black Sea for over four decades as operator
sortium of OMV (30%), Total (40%) and Rep- and has gained valuable deep water experience
sol (30%). The group conducted geological and as non-operator in the adjacent Neptun Deep
geophysical surveys and drilled three explora- licence in Romania.”
tion wells, the first of which made an oil discov- OMV Petrom is also in discussions to search
ery. Most recently they shot a 5,614-square km for oil off the coast of Georgia, which is looking
3D seismic survey, results of which are being to replicate the exploration successes of other
processed and will guide future exploration Black Sea countries. It won a tender for Georgia’s
activities. Block II in June.™
Repsol exited the venture earlier this year,
transferring its interest to its partners.
Han-Asparuh spans 13,819 square km of
the Black Sea in waters over 2,000 metres deep.
It borders the Neptun Deep block in Romanian
waters, which OMV is looking to develop with
ExxomMobil. But the pair have complained
that Romania’s controls on gas prices and sup-
ply do not support the project, and they are yet
to take a final investment decision. Further-
more, Exxon is looking to sell its interest as

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