Lundin Petroleum has sold its assets in Indonesia in an agreement with Medco Energi International in a $22million deal. The assets include the non-operate interest in the producing Singa gas field and the operated interest in the South Sokang and Cendrawasih VII Blocks, as well as the joint study agreement in respect of the Cendrawasih VIII Block.
Oil giant Shell has completed the sale of Smart Fuel to St1 Nordic Oy of some of its downstream businesses in Norway. The company said it would still continue to remain highly visible in the country, despite the deal for its retail, commercial fuels and supply and distribution logistics businesses. Shell and St1 have also joined forced to create Aviation Fuelling Services Norway AS, a joint venture to sell aviation fuel in Norway.
Sanchez Energy will sell off a number of assets in the US in a $345million deal. The deal will see Sanchez Production Partners acquire and operate certain pipeline, gathering and compression assets located in the Western part of its Catarina asset in the Eagle Ford Shale in South Texas. The proceeds from the Western Catarina Divestiture will be used to further enhance Sanchez’s Energy’s liquidity position which is expected to enable the company to pursue growth opportunities through asset acquisitions.
Total has signed an agreement to sell an interest of 50% plus one share in Geosel Manosque to a consortium of EDF invest and Ardian. The transaction has been valued at €265million and is subject to confirmation of the other Geosel shareholder and customary regulatory approvals.
Rockhopper Exploration has agreed on an asset purchase deal with Beach Energy that will give it a number of assets in Egypt in a $22million deal. The move will see the company gain a 22% interest in the Abu Sennan concession and a 25% interest in the El Qa’a Plain concession. Rockhopper said the headline consideration for the deal is $22million payable to Beach Energy through a combination of cash and the issue of the Rockhopper consideration shares.
For the first time since the financial crisis, the Norwegian government’s oil company has seen no significant new plans presented for its offshore fields this year as producers cut spending after crude prices collapsed. Petoro AS, which manages the state’s direct ownership in a third of the country’s oil and gas reserves, said operating companies have submitted no new proposals for projects that are valued at more than 1 billion kroner ($120 million) and include plans for a development-concept or investment decision. “When you consider that the decisions we make this year are the ones that will generate income four to five years from now, it’s worrying,” Petoro Chief Executive Officer Grethe Moen said Thursday in an phone interview from Stavanger. “The issue is the consequence for production.”
Oil companies are making the largest cost cuts in a generation to reassure investors. They’re risking their own future growth. From Chevron Corp. to Royal Dutch Shell Plc, producers are firing thousands of workers and canceling investments to defend their dividends. Cutbacks across the industry total $180 billion so far this year, the most since the oil crash of 1986, according to Rystad Energy AS, an Oslo-based energy consultant. BP Plc Chief Executive Officer Bob Dudley said last week his “first priority” was payouts to shareholders. Chevron CFO Patricia Yarrington said her company was committed to continuing its 27-year record of annual dividend increases. While the dividend payouts please investors, the producers risk repeating the patterns of 1986 and 1999, when prices slumped and they slashed spending. It took years for them to rebuild their pipelines of production growth.
Bondholders have agreed to a proposed restructuring of Iona Energy after unveiling the plans earlier this year. The next step following the approval will allow Nordic Trustee, which is acting as trustee to holders of the bonds, is to negotiate final documentation to implement the restructuring. It is expected to be completed by the end of September this year.
Oil firms trying to sell off ageing North Sea fields are said to be considering shouldering hundreds of millions of dollars in potential dismantling costs in a bid to find buyers. According to reports, the decrease in spending brought on by the oil price decline, has triggered companies to increase efficiencies and sell or shut down assets which are no longer profitable. However despite a number of assets going up for sale in recent months, few deals have been completed.
Negotiations by SEPLAT Petroleum Development to acquire an asset in Nigeria which faced delays has finally restarted. The company said it had reached an agreement to release funds from an account which had been set up with a consortium in a bid to make a potential acquisition. It had been created to look for opportunities to buy assets from oil and gas companies operating in the region. In the latest agreement, SEPLAT has said it will release $408million of the total $453million which is being held in the account.
Noreco could face losing its stake in a number of assets after failing to make payments for operations costs. The Norwegian energy company said its Danish subsidiary was prevented in January from making payments for its share of production costs at the Nini field and as a result was in breach of its licence agreement. It means other partners may now claim Noreco’s 30% interest in the licence without any consideration. The company said as part of negotiations to agree on an overall restructuring proposal for Noreco, a committee of bondholders has stated that their consent would require that costs and cash flows related to its operations in Denmark must be improved.
Apache has agreed to sell off assets in Louisiana and the Anadarko Basin for $1.4billion in two separate transactions. The company said the first deal will involve the sale of 90,000 net acres of mature fields in Southern Louisiana. The mature fields, which it said were characterised by high decline rates and short reserve lives, produced 21,000 BOE (Barrels of Oil Equivalent) per day.