Bidders pull out of Alba sale by Statoil and Mitsui

Deloitte has launched the sale of Endeavour Energy UK. The US parent company of Endeavour Energy UK is going through bankruptcy proceedings and Deloitte has been appointed to monetise the company’s UK unit. Endeavour Energy UK owns a 25.7% in Alba amongst other North Sea assets. This is larger than Statoil’s 17% or Mitsui’s 13.3% stake which is being marketed. Although Statoil and Mitsui have been trying to sell their stakes since the end of...

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The oil market is recovering

Oil inventories have been worked down and beginning to return to historical normalised levels, driven by a mix of robust demand growth on the one hand and concerted efforts by OPEC plus friends to cap production on the other. While 12-18 months ago heightened geopolitical tensions and operational outages barely moved oil prices, such events are now needle moving news. The outage of Forties at the end of last year and intermittent headline grabbing...

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Double success for Energean – IPO and FID

Energean put the East Med on the map this week propelling the region into the headlines. Energean debuted on the London Stock Exchange at the beginning of this week with its Initial Public Offering and USD460 million of new money putting the company’s market capitalisation at just under USD1 billion. The company’s flagship asset is its 70% stake in the Karish & Tanin gas fields offshore Israel which contain 2.4tcf of gas and 33mmboe of light...

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Delek and Noble seeking to acquire gas pipeline to Egypt

Following Noble and Delek’s agreement to sell 64bcm of gas into Egypt via Egyptian intermediary Dolphinus Holdings, the two upstream companies have commenced discussions to acquire EMG, the business which owns the Arish-Ashkelon pipeline (otherwise known as the EMG pipeline). This is one of the routes contemplated by Noble and Delek as part of plans to export gas into the wider East Med and Europe. The 64bcm of gas will be sourced from Tamar...

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Petsec increases interest in Block 7 offshore Yemen to 100%

Petsec has acquired Oil Search's 40% interest in Block 7. Full announcement below. Petsec Energy has completed the transaction with Oil Search to acquire all of the shares of its subsidiary Oil Search (ROY) Limited which holds a 40% working interest (34% participating interest) in the Al Barqa (Block 7) licence and operatorship, in the Republic of Yemen. Completion of the Oil Search agreement follows the 2016 transaction with KUFPEC (25% working...

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Total enters into two new 40 year concessions with ADNOC

Total has extended its commitment to the Abu Dhabi by entering into two new 40 year concessions with ADNOC for USD1.45 billion. This follows the deal last week between Eni and ADNOC. Total has been granted a 5% interest in Lower Zakum and 20% interest in the new Umm, Shaif & Nasr concession. Total notes that the access cost equates to USD1/boe of reserves. Comparison of transactions Total Eni Lower Zakum 5% 5% Uum, Shaif & Nasr 20% 10% Price Paid USD1.45 billion USD875 million ...

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Leviathan and Aphrodite gas to fuel ELNG at Idku

As widely reported, Shell has been in talks to buy gas from Israel’s Leviathan field and Cyrpus’ Aphrodite field. It is understood that Shell are looking to contract up to 10bcm p.a. for 10 years in a deal worth up to USD25 billion. Shell would use the gas to properly restart LNG exports from Egyptian LNG at the Idku liquefaction plant. BG Group was the operator of the plant prior to its acquisition by Shell and previously had a non-binding 15...

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Dolphinus and the wider Egyptian gas hub story

Dolphinus was established with the main aim of becoming a “reliable and stable supplier of gas to major industrial gas distributors and consumers in Egypt”. It was co-founded by prominent Egyptian entrepreneurs Dr. Alaa Arafa, Eng. Khaled Abu Bakr and Mohamed Khalifa. As a first step in its strategy, Dolphinus entered into a 64bcm, 10 year gas supply contract with Noble Energy and Delek Drilling for their gas in Israel (see Israel's Leviathan...

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Israel's Leviathan and Tamar gas to be sold into Egypt

Noble Energy and Delek Drilling announced plans in February to export gas to Egypt. The plan is to supply 64bcm over a 10 year period to Egypt’s Dolphinus Holdings – 32bcm from Leviathan and 32bcm from Tamar. Each field is contracted up to 3.5bcm p.a. or c.350mmcfpd and will bring the partners USD15 billion over the life of the supply contract. The contracted price and terms are in line with other supply contracts from these fields which is based...

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BP looks to sell out of Gulf of Suez

BP is running a process to sell its more mature fields in the Gulf of Suez, Egypt. The sale is hoped to raise between USD500 - 1,000 million. The exit of the Gulf of Suez will allow BP to focus more on its deepwater gas portfolio in the country's offshore in the West Nile Delta and Eastern Mediterranean including the Zohr field which it entered at the end of 2016. BP has 100% of the fields in the Gulf of Suez area and operates them in a JV with...

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SDX makes heavy oil discovery at West Gharib in Egypt

SDX has made a heavy oil discovery on the West Ghraib licence at the Rabul-5 well. The partners had implemented a waterflood programme in 2017 on the block and commenced an exploration and appraisal programme. Rabul-1 and -2 were drilled last year resulting in two discoveries and the current Rubul-5 well is a continuation of the delineation programme. Approval for develeopment locations at Meseda will be sought in 2018. SDX holds 50% interest...

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Flight ban into Kurdistan lifted

Kurdistan operators can begin to ramp up operations again following the re-opening of the airport. As reported previously, the closure had caused logistical problems for the operators. Reuters reported yesterday that Iraq has lifted the ban on international flights to the semi-autonomous Kurdistan Region's airports. Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said that Kurdistan's regional airports will be under the command of the Federal Ministry of the Interior. The ban on international flights was part of sanctions imposed on Kurdistan after September’s...

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Eni enters the Emirates

Eni has made its first move into the Emirates with entry into various fields in Abu Dhabi. It has paid ADNOC USD875 million to acquire a 40-year licence on: 5% in Lower Zakum offshore oil field 10% in Umm, Shaif and Nasr offshore oil, condensate and gas fields The fields require further investment with combined gross production from the fields targeting 910mbopd. Once at plateau, the fields will contribute material production and generate significant cash flow. Eni press release below Eni signed today in Abu Dhabi two Concession Agreements...

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All’s well in western Kurdistan

The western part of Kurdistan appears to be holding up following the referendum last autumn. Although there is much to do to reconcile the fragile relationship between Federal Iraq and the Kurdistan region, things for now appear to have stabilised – however upcoming elections in both is limiting any meaningful progress with political candidates not willing to make any bold reconciliatory moves to avoid alienating voters. The operators in western...

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Mubadala enters Zohr - acquires 10% from Eni

Mubadala has agreed to acquire a 10% interest in Zohr from USD934 million. Mubadala will acquire an interest in the Shorouk concession which contains the Zohr field. The super giant field came onstream in December 2017, 28 months after its discovery. The field is currently producing 400mmcfpd and planned to reach plateau by the end of 2019. For Mubadala, this adds a world class asset with long term cash flows into its investment portfolio. Musabbeh...

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Tamar Petroleum to raise bonds to finance acquisition of Tamar from Noble

As reported previously, Tamar Petroleum is acquiring a 7.5% stake in the Tamar field from Noble Energy for USD800 million. The consideration will be paid USD560 million in cash with the remainder in Tamar Petroleum shares. To help finance the transaction, Tamar Petroleum is planning to raise USD 625million (ILS 2.178bn) through the sale of bonds, Ha'aretz. reported. The net proceeds are expected to be c.USD605 million, the excess would be put...

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Venture Global doubles LNG supply contract with Shell on Calcasieu Pass

On 6th March, Venture Global announced that it had agreed to double its gas sales with Shell North America LNG from 1mtpa to 2mtpa under an amendment to the earlier gas sales agreement for LNG from Calcasieu Pass. This brings the total committed capacity to 3mtpa with Edison having agreed 1mtpa in September 2017. The sale contracts are for 20 years and under FOB terms. The counterparties to date provide validation of the attractiveness of the...

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Chevron shuts in Alba platform as Mitsui and Statoil try to sell the field

Chevron the operator of the Alba field in the UK North Sea has announced at the end of last week that it had been forced to shut down production at the field. This follows a power outage at the platform. Emergency back-up power is in place and the crew continues to try and restore power. The mature heavy oil field which was brought onstream in 1994 is exploited from a fixed platform tied to a floating storage unit. Endeavour had tried to sell...

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Nova development could face delays with Gjøa tie-back challenges

Nova (formerly Skarfjell) is planning to submit the field development plan to the Norwegian authorities in H1 2018. The selected development concept is four production wells and three injection wells from two subsea templates tied back to the Gjøa platform. Neptune which operates Gjøa has raised concerns about the potential tie-back which it has now raised with the Ministry of Petroleum. Nova is an oil and gas field operated by Wintershall...

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Petronas makes offshore discovery in Gabon

PETRONAS has made the Boudji-1 discovery in deepwater Gabon. The discovery is located in Block F14 or Likuale in which PETRONAS holds 50% as an operator, Woodside holds 30% and the government holds 20%. The block lies in deepwater between depths of 2,500-3,200m. Exploration activity in the deepwater has been slow with the country previously focussing in the onshore and coastal areas. Gabon has held ad-hoc licensing rounds for the offshore...

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SOCO terminates merger talks with Kuwait Energy

Soco has formally terminated merger talks with Kuwait Energy over valuation differences. Full press release from Soco below. On 8 January 2018, SOCO International plc (“SOCO”) announced that it was in preliminary discussions with the newly-constituted Board of Directors of Kuwait Energy plc (“Kuwait Energy”) regarding a potential transaction. SOCO confirms that it has terminated these discussions because it could not reach agreement with Kuwait Energy on the basis for an acceptable transaction. SOCO’s Board remains committed to its strategy...

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US Gulf Coast claims strategic trading hub title

The US Gulf Coast has inadvertently become a strategic trading hub for global oil flows in the rapidly evolving oil market marked by North American short cycle shale production. The region is blessed with access to premium upstream acreage linked by a strong network of infrastructure and ports which have been converted from import to import/export terminals following the lifting of the crude export ban two years ago. Source: EIA The PADD...

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Marathon fully exits Libyan operations to Total for USD450 million

Marathon announced this morning that it had sold its Libyan upstream operations to Total for USD450 million. Marathon had a 16.33% in the Waha licence area which covers a series of blocks in northern Libya and encapsulates a large number of fields and discoveries. Although Waha predominantly produces oil, there are significant undeveloped gas discoveries as well. Waha licence acreageSource: Wood Mackenzie The divestment represents a full...

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Papua New Guinea LNG force majeure a week after expansion plans announced

ExxonMobil has declared force majeure on PNG LNG after Papua New Guinea was hit by a 7.5 magnitude earthquake on Monday. The partners in the plant, which exported 7.8 million tonnes last year, are ExxonMobil (33.2% operator), Oil Search (29%), State of Papua New Guinea (16.8%), Santos (13.5%), JX Nippon (4.7%) and Mineral Resources Development Company of Papua New Guinea (2.8%). Latest reports are that the pipeline and liquefaction plant...

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