Page 6 - MEOG Week 47.pdf

MEOG FinanCe & inVestment MEOG
Investor uptake covers institutional tranche of Saudi Aramco’s IPO
saudi arabia
SAUDI Aramco’s initial public offering is pro- ceeding smoothly with the segment of the offer- ing targeting institutional clients being covered in the first three days of book opening expected to last till December 4.
The company is offering up to 1.5% of its shares currently being marketed to only domes- tic retail and institutional investors after the Saudi government pulled the plug on offering Aramco shares on foreign markets in response to valuation concerns.
The government has used a considerable amount of leverage to make the IPO a success, going as far as leaning on wealthy Saudi families to invest in the state-owned national oil cham- pion as well as relaxing credit rules to encourage banks to lend to retail investors seeking to buy shares in the company.
The IPO is central to Crown Prince Mohamed Bin Salman’s modernisation drive for the king- dom. Public Investment Fund, the owner of Aramco, plans to use proceeds of the partial pri- vatisation in the development of the non-oil sec- tor as part of a broader economic diversification strategy away from oil.
On November 24, Aramco officials met potential investors in Dubai after the firm was reported by Reuters to have approached the Kuwait Investment Authority (KIA), the neigh- bouring state’s sovereign wealth fund (SWF) about possible interest in the IPO.
A source was quoted as saying that KIA would “study” the IPO.
Talks are believed to have been held with other SWFs including Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA) and GIC of Singapore.
Aramco is seeking a cornerstone investor for the IPO, though there are reported to be numer- ous sizeable funds keen to take on a significant chunk of the funding.™
PerFormanCe
POGC increases output from South Pars
iran
IRAN’S Pars Oil & Gas Co. (POGC) has announced that output from the supergiant South Pars (SP) gas field has increased in recent months, with new platforms to add further capacity.
Speaking to press during a visit to SP-asso- ciated infrastructure, POGC CEO Mohammad Meshkinfam said that output from the 24-phase asset is currently running at 630mn cubic metres per day of gas.
He added that projects in phases 13, 14 and 22-24 were being undertaken by local Iranian companies – POGC recently installed two plat- forms at Phases 22-24.
POGC’s acting deputy director for SP22-24, Ali Asghar Sadeghi, was quoted by state energy media outlet Shana as saying: “The platform for phase 23 is the third gas platform in phases 22 to 24 of the field. Similar to the first phase’s two plat- forms, the 23rd phase was constructed by Iran
Marine Industrial Co. (SADRA) with the daily production capacity of 14.2 mcm.”
SP22-24 had been earmarked to produce a combined 18.6 bcm per year by March 20 this year, but a lack of foreign currency after the US withdrawal from the nuclear deal derailed these ambitions.
Phases 22, 23 and 24 are being developed with the aim to produce 56 mcm of natural gas, 75,000 barrels per day of gas condensate and 400 tonnes per day of sulphur. These phases will also yield 1.05mn tonnes per year of LPG and 1mn tonnes per year of ethane.
Meanwhile, Meshkinfam said that the start of production at phases 13, 14 and 22-24 would increase output to 680 mcm per day.
In August, output reached 610mn cubic metres per day according to local media reports, with Tehran maintaining its long-term goal of producing 1bcm per day from the field as soon
P6
w w w . N E W S B A S E . c o m Week 47 27•November•2019