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MEOG FINANCE & INVESTMENT MEOG

Oxy considering sale of

MEA assets to Pertamina

UAE US major Occidental Petroleum (Oxy) is block, while at that point ADNOC has an option
reported to be in talks with Indonesian NOC to take the state firm’s typical 60% stake.
Pertamina regarding the potential sale of oil and The US firm is also called upon both to lever-
gas assets in Ghana and the UAE. age and contribute to “the world’s largest contin-
Speaking to Bloomberg last week, sources uous 3D onshore and offshore seismic survey”
close to proceedings said that a $4.5bn deal was being carried out by China’s BGP under a $1.6bn
in the works for stakes in various assets, while contract signed in July.
Pertamina had also expressed an interest in This deal reflected a strategy, vocally sup-
assets in Algeria and Oman, though it is not yet ported and widely delivered upon since late
known whether these would be included in the 2017, of deepening ties with existing partners in
initial deal. order to fulfil ADNOC’s broader upstream and
Oxy has been seeking to reduce its debt bur- downstream development goals.
den following the $37bn acquisition last year The estimated $10bn Shah project came on
of Anadarko Petroleum. This has included the stream in 2015, producing sour gas in the emir-
potential sale of assets in the Middle East, while ate for the first time, and the partners are in the
efforts to sell its Ghanaian and Algerian assets process of an expansion to increase capacity by
to French super-major Total failed earlier in the 50% to 15.5 bcm per year.
year. It is believed that Pertamina is just one of Having withdrawn from holdings in Bahrain,
several interested parties in the Ghana and UAE Iraq and most recently Qatar in recent years,
assets. Oxy has expressed intent for regional focus to be
In February, Oxy was awarded Block 3, one honed to expansion in Oman and the UAE.
of the onshore blocks offered in Abu Dhabi’s Delivering on the former, the US firm in
maiden bid round last year. December signed exploration and production
The 5,782-square km tract of land lies in agreements for two blocks tendered during Mus-
the south-east of the emirate, not far from the cat’s 2017 licensing round.
Shah sour gas field – where the ADNOC/Oxy Oxy had also been carrying out exploration
JV formerly called Al Hosn and now renamed and appraisal of sour gas fields in Abu Dhabi’s
ADNOC Sour Gas carried out the emirate’s North West Offshore area under a technical
maiden sour gas project during the first half of assistance agreement initially signed in 2015. Its
the decade. absence was thus somewhat surprising as IOC
The award was symptomatic of the Emirati shareholders were assigned stakes in late 2018
giant’s hopes that renewed exploration activity in the new Ghasha Concession covering these
will yield additional reserves of the resource – fields.
which has been in increasingly short domestic Italy’s Eni, Germany’s Wintershall and Aus-
supply. tria-based Abu Dhabi government-affiliated
The undeveloped acreage covers an irreg- OMV were selected – with Eni in partnership
ularly shaped area bordered to the west by the with Thailand’s PTTEP also winning the two
existing concession of ADNOC Onshore – cov- offshore blocks included in the licensing round
ering the emirate’s main oilfields and includ- last month.
ing in the south-east the Shah, Asab, Sahil and However, Oxy’s specialism is in the explora-
Mender fields. To the east lies part of the conces- tion and development of challenging onshore
sion held by Al-Dhafra Petroleum Operations, acreage – primarily in the US Permian Basin but
a JV between the UAE firm and a South Korean also including the now-prolific Mukhaizna field
consortium of GS Energy and Korea National in south-east Oman.™
Oil Corp. (KNOC).
Reflective of proximity to such prolific exist-
ing assets, 3-D seismic data has already been
amassed covering a large part of the newly delin-
eated block and Oxy CEO Vicki Hollub revealed
after the signing event that the area was thought
to contain around 3.5bn barrels of oil and 28bn
cubic metres of gas.
The firm took a 100% stake during the explo-
ration phase of the 35-year concession, during
which time investment of at least $244mn will be
made, including a participation fee. In the event
of a commercial discovery, Oxy will be granted
the rights to develop and produce from the

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