Page 8 - AsianOil Week 31
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AsianOil REGION AsianOil
Pertamina mulls acquisition
of Oxy’s MEA assets
FINANCE & INDONESIA’S state-owned Pertamina is – covering the emirate’s main oilfields and
INVESTMENT reportedly in talks with US major Occidental including in the south-east the Shah, Asab, Sahil
Petroleum (Oxy) regarding the potential sale of and Mender fields. To the east lies part of the
oil and gas assets in Ghana and the UAE. concession held by Al-Dhafra Petroleum Oper-
Speaking to Bloomberg last week, sources ations, a JV between the UAE firm and a South
close to proceedings said that a $4.5bn deal was Korean consortium of GS Energy and Korea
in the works for stakes in various assets, while National Oil Corp. (KNOC).
Pertamina had also expressed an interest in Reflective of proximity to such prolific exist-
assets in Algeria and Oman, though it is not yet ing assets, 3-D seismic data has already been
known whether these would be included in the amassed covering a large part of the newly delin-
initial deal. eated block and Oxy CEO Vicki Hollub revealed
Oxy has been seeking to reduce its debt bur- after the signing event that the area was thought
den following the $37bn acquisition last year to contain around 3.5bn barrels of oil and 28bn
of Anadarko Petroleum. This has included cubic metres of gas.
the potential sale of assets in the Middle East, The firm took a 100% stake during the explo-
It is believed that while efforts to sell its Ghanaian and Algerian ration phase of the 35-year concession, during
Pertamina is just assets to French super-major Total failed ear- which time investment of at least $244mn will be
lier in the year. It is believed that Pertamina made, including a participation fee. In the event
one of several is just one of several interested parties in the of a commercial discovery, Oxy will be granted
the rights to develop and produce from the
Ghana and UAE assets.
interested parties In February, Oxy was awarded Block 3, one block, while at that point ADNOC has an option
in the Ghana and of the onshore blocks offered in Abu Dhabi’s to take the state firm’s typical 60% stake.
The US firm is also called upon both to lever-
maiden bid round last year. The 5,782-square km
UAE assets tract of land lies in the south-east of the emirate, age and contribute to “the world’s largest contin-
not far from the Shah sour gas field – where the uous 3D onshore and offshore seismic survey”
ADNOC/Oxy JV formerly called Al Hosn and being carried out by China’s BGP under a $1.6bn
now renamed ADNOC Sour Gas carried out the contract signed in July.
emirate’s maiden sour gas project during the first This deal reflected a strategy, vocally sup-
half of the decade. ported and widely delivered upon since late
The award was symptomatic of the Emirati 2017, of deepening ties with existing partners in
giant’s hopes that renewed exploration activity order to fulfil ADNOC’s broader upstream and
will yield additional reserves of the resource, downstream development goals.
which has been in increasingly short domestic The estimated $10bn Shah project came on
supply. stream in 2015, producing sour gas in the emir-
The undeveloped acreage covers an irreg- ate for the first time, and the partners are in the
ularly shaped area bordered to the west by process of an expansion to raise capacity by 50%
the existing concession of ADNOC Onshore to 15.5 bcm per year.
P8 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 31 06•August•2020
