Endeavour endangers Alba sale for Statoil and Mitsui

Statoil and Mitsui started marketing their stakes in the Alba heavy oil field in the North Sea at the end of 2017. The field is located in a complex reservoir and developed from a steel platform tied to a floating storage unit. The field has been marketed by partner Endeavour before without success. Endeavour put its stake up for sale in 2015 but failed to attract sufficient interest. Sources have revealed that interest in the current sales...

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VNG to evaluate options for its Norwegian E&P business

As widely expected, VNG's owner EnBW is looking for a partner or buyer for its E&P business VNG - full press release below. As part of VNG Group’s strategic programme “VNG 2030+”, VNG – Verbundnetz Gas Aktiengesellschaft (VNG AG) will explore strategic options for its oil and gas exploration and production business in Norway and Denmark, VNG Norge AS (“VNG Norge”). As VNG AG sees long term value creation potential in the E&P-business,...

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Kosmos: An unfinished West African story

Kosmos has had a busy 2017 chasing a high risk high reward oil play and working up its Senegal/Mauritania gas resources. In the second half of the year Hippocampe and Lamantin both came in dry ending the company's campaign for higher value oil. It can now focus on developing the c.40tcf of gas found at Tortue, Teranga, Yakaar and BirAllah. It has hopefully found the right partner in BP who farmed-in in late 2016. Although not generally seen...

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Private equity backed Neptune Energy acquires Engie E&P

On 11th May, Neptune Energy announced that it had agreed to acquire Engie's upstream portfolio, Engie E&P International ("EPI"). In 2011, Engie had sold 30% of EPI to China Investment Corporation ("CIC"), retaining a 70% interest in the business. As part of the transaction, Neptune Energy will pay USD3.9 billion for the 70% stake and also take over CIC's 30% stake, in return for CIC becoming a 49% shareholder in Neptune Energy. The Carlyle...

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Perenco acquires Gabonese assets from Total

On 27th February Total announced that it had agreed the sale of its Gabonese assets to Perenco for USD350 million. Perenco will acquire: Total Participations Petrolières Gabon ("TPPG") a wholly owned subsidiary of Total which has interests in 10 assets; and 5 assets from Total Gabon, the publicly listed entity in which Total owns 58.3% and the government of Gabon 41.7% The package will comprise of 12 fields (some are owned by ‎TPPG and Total...

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International Petroleum Investment Company: A fresh start

IPIC has been on a journey to rebuild its business following the extraordinary downfall of Khadem al-Qubaisi, the company’s managing director who was made to step down in April 2015. In the months that followed, there was a major shakeup across all levels of the organisation including in the portfolio companies, with many of the roles previously held by al-Qubaisi reassigned to new officers. At the time, IPIC did not release any statements around...

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Siccar Point is building up its business

OGInsights recently caught up with the Siccar Point team following its successful acquisition of the OMV North Sea business, which includes an 11.8% stake in the flagship Schiehallion oil field. Together with the acquisition of a stake in the Mariner field earlier this year, Siccar Point has now built up a North Sea business of relevant scale. Siccar Point is a North Sea focussed E&P, with financial backing from Blackstone, Blue Water Energy...

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BP: Adapting to the times - Where were they now? (Part 2)

The OGInsights team recently met with the BP corporate strategy department to discuss how the strategic direction of the company has changed since the collapse in oil prices. In this two part entry, we look at where BP were a year ago and where they are now in terms of strategic thinking. Part 2: Where are they now? With oil prices appearing to stay lower for longer, BP’s priorities have changed and all large M&A is on hold. Focus is on cost cutting, targeting breakeven of USD 50-55/bbl over the next year and farming down high working interests...

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BP: Adapting to the times - Where were they then? (Part 1)

The OGInsights team recently met with the BP corporate strategy department to discuss how the strategic direction of the company has changed since the collapse in oil prices. In this two part entry, we look at where BP were a year ago and where they are now in terms of strategic thinking. Part 1: Where were they then? At the beginning of 2015, BP already began planning for a "lower for longer" scenario, however growth was still very much top of mind. Reserve replacement was a key challenge to the company's longer term existence and the USD2 billion...

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ExxonMobil - finding a needle in a haystack

We met with ExxonMobil in the first week of December to catch up on what they have been up in 2015 on the M&A front. The low oil price has certainly prompted an internal flurry of screening for targets and the teams have been looking at “a lot of opportunities” with billions of dollars ready to be spent on acquisitions. Despite a desire to do something, finding the right opportunity is still like “finding a needle in a haystack”. ExxonMobil’s...

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CNOOCNexen on the prowl

Last week, we met with the CNOOCNexen corporate team to discuss their thinking in the current low oil price environment and the possibility of using the opportunity to make acquisitions. At the beginning of 2015, CNOOCNexen expected oil prices to settle at c.USD60/bbl and the second drop in June came as a surprise. Similar to the view held by many oil companies, the oil price is now lower for longer than originally anticipated. CNOOCNexen...

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