Page 7 - MEOG Week 50 2022

MEOG FINANCE & INVESTMENT MEOG

ADNOC, Aramco seek

finance for gas expansion

SAUDI/UAE THE Gulf’s two top NOCs are reported to be Speaking to Bloomberg, sources said that the
reaching out to source financing to support investors would likely fund infrastructure for
major gas expansion efforts. midstream and downstream processing units at
Abu Dhabi National Oil Co. (ADNOC) is the field, noting that stakes could be offered in
said to have asked banks to pitch for work in carbon capture and storage (CCS), pipelines and
supporting the listing of a new consolidated gas hydrogen plants. Aramco is being advised on the
division on the local stock exchange, while Saudi plans by investment bank Evercore.
Aramco is holding talks with financial institu- Aramco has raised nearly $60bn in recent
tions to take an equity stake in projects associ- years through its own IPO on the local Tadawul
ated with the development of the Kingdom’s stock exchange and by leasing shares in its oil
Jafurah unconventional gas deposit. and gas pipelines businesses.
Reuters quoted people involved in proceed- Announcing its Q2 results in August, it said
ings as saying that ADNOC had invited banks to that it was “progressing towards increasing pro-
pitch to join Goldman Sachs in a syndicate, while duction” as work continues to construct the
sources told Bloomberg that Bank of Amer- 3.1bn cubic feet (88mn cubic metres) per day
ica Corp. and First Abu Dhabi Bank have been Jafurah Gas Plant.
chosen as joint global coordinators on the initial Aramco said it is expected to be completed
public offering (IPO). The latter report said that in two phases by 2027 with the unconventional
ADNOC has invited banks to pitch for the role Jafurah field seen beginning production in 2025.
of bookrunner. The field is the key focus of Aramco’s gas
In November, the Emirati firm announced expansion plans and output will ramp up to “a
plans to combine its gas-processing and lique- sustainable rate” of 2 bcf (57 mcm) per day by
fied natural gas (LNG) arms in a new business 2030, providing feedstock for hydrogen and
called ADNOC Gas, which will have one of the ammonia production and help satisfy expand-
world’s top gas processing capacities at around ing local demand.
10bn cubic feet (283mn cubic metres) per day Involvement in the Saudi upstream would be
from eight processing facilities as well as a pipe- highly political and would require approval from
line network spanning 3,250 km. ADNOC’s the Ministry of Energy (MoE), through which
announcement said it would sell a minority stake Aramco received its concession to develop
in the firm in an IPO on the Abu Dhabi Securi- the Kingdom’s oil and gas reserves for an ini-
ties Exchange (ADX) in 2023. tial 40-year period (extendable by a further 60
BP and Japan’s Mitsui & Co. own shares in years).
ADNOC LNG, with Thailand’s PTT and Shell Based on this concession, the company’s
holding shares in ADNOC Gas Processing – reserves total 198.8bn barrels of crude and con-
French super-major TotalEnergies has a share- densate, 25.2bn barrels of NGL and 191.6 trillion
holding in both businesses. cubic feet (5.43 trillion cubic metres) of gas.
However, downstream joint ventures (JVs)
Funding Jafurah are much less contentious, with Aramco already
As ADNOC prepares to take its gas arm public, involved in refining and petrochemical pro-
Aramco is reporting to be looking for private jects with companies including Dow Chem-
financiers to support the $110bn Jafurah devel- ical, Shell, Sinopec, Sumitomo Chemical and
opment project. TotalEnergies.™

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