Page 8 - AfrOil Week 02 2021

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EurOil: BP relaunches North Sea sale The state’s parliament gave the green light on
BP has reportedly relaunched the sale of some of January 7 to the initiative, which would set up a
its North Sea interests, following the collapse of foundation that could buy needed materials for
a previous deal with Premier Oil. pipeline construction, thereby circumventing
The UK major agreed to divest its Andrew US sanctions. Lawmakers approved €200,000
Area and Shearwater assets to Premier Oil in ($245,000) of public money for the fund, while
January, initially for $625mn, but the price tag the Gazprom-owned Nord Stream 2 operating
was later renegotiated to $210mn in light of company has pledged a further €20mn.
the oil price collapse. The deal was then scup- Washington’s current sanctions only target
pered altogether when Premier announced in those companies providing pipelaying vessels
October its merger with fellow North Sea player for Nord Stream 2. But a proposed second round
Chrysaor. will extend penalties to those providing technical
BP has now put the sales process back on certification and insurance for the work, as well
track, according to Reuters, inviting companies as additional pipelaying activities such as survey-
to bid for the assets without a deadline. But the ing, trenching and rock placement.
producer is unlikely to collect more than $80mn The legislation was part of a broader defence
from the sale, the news agency said. bill that cleared the US Congress but was vetoed
After the deal was clinched with Chrysaor, by US President Donald Trump. The House of
Premier CEO Tony Durrant said he expected Representatives then voted to override that veto BP is aiming to
talks between BP and the combined entity, and the Senate followed suit on January 1, mean-
which will be known as Harbour Energy, to be ing the sanctions could come into law in the next unload a further
revived at a later point. Aberdeen-based West- few weeks.
wood Global said in October that Harbour was In other news, Trafigura has revealed it $25bn worth of
likely to continue with its buying spree in order tapped a Russian bank for a $7bn loan to fund its
to offset declining production rates at some of its investment in Rosneft’s Vostok Oil megaproject assets by 2025
older assets. in the Russian Arctic.
As of press time, BP has not commented on Rosneft announced on December 29 it had
the matter. Having already parted with billions completed a 10% stake sale to Trafigura, first
of dollars of assets, the UK major is aiming to agreed in November. But neither company dis-
offload a further $25bn by 2025, as part of its closed the deal’s value, although Trafigura said it
plan to move away from oil and gas and towards was funded through long-term debt financing.
renewables. It has just disposed of its petrochem- In corporate filings in Singapore, however,
icals business in a $5bn deal with the UK’s Ineos.. Trafigura reported obtaining a €5.775bn ($7bn)
loan facility with the Credit Bank of Moscow
If you’d like to read more about the key events shaping on December 23, shedding light on the scale of
Europe’s oil and gas sector then please click here for Vostok Oil’s deal. The implication is that Trafig-
NewsBase’s EurOil Monitor. ura paid the same amount for Vostok Oil as its
book value. It also puts Vostok Oil’s overall value
FSU: Germany’s Nord Stream 2 plans at $70bn, exceeding Rosneft’s entire market cap-
Germany’s northern state of Mecklenburg-Vor- italisation of $62bn.
pommern aims to establish a foundation to sup-
port the completion of Russia’s Nord Stream 2 If you’d like to read more about the key events shaping
gas pipeline, amid the looming threat of further the former Soviet Union’s oil and gas sector then
US sanctions against the project. please click here for NewsBase’s FSU Monitor.

P8 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 02 13•January•2021