Acquisitions NEWS

London’s major oil and gas company, HALO, has entered into an agreement with the conditional acquisition of Third Energy Offshore Ltd. The London major will acquire the complete share capital of Third Energy whose portfolio includes 45% interests in the Greater Pegasus Area. HALO will proceed with this procurement through its wholly owned subsidiary Hague and London Oil B.V. (HALO).

UAE’s state-owned ADNOC is purchasing a 25% stake from Saudi Aramco in the $44 billion refinery and petrochemical project in India. The company will enter into an agreement with Saudi Aramco and Indian companies (IOCL, HPCl, and BPCL) on Monday. This decision is being seen as the realization of the growing fuel demand in Asia, which will prove to be a stable outlet for the crude they produce.

Gulf-based Cox Oil has entered into an agreement to acquire Energy XXI Gulf Coast in $322 million. Cox Oil will secure all of the outstanding shares of Energy XXI’s common stock for $9.10/share, as part of the agreement. This will effectively terminate Energy XXIs partnership with Orinoco Natural Resources LLC announced last month. Upon completion of the deal, Cox Oil’s production will be boosted to more than 61,000 boe/d.

Dutch multinational, LyondellBasell, is into discussions with Odebrecht to acquire leading plastic producer, Braskem. The two companies jointly talked about sharing a strong culture of operational excellence and legacies of value-creating innovation. The negotiations are into preliminary phase and no agreements have been reached yet. Appropriate diligence, definitive agreements, and corporate approvals are still due.

The Australian gas pipeline company APA has received a $9.8b takeover offer from a Hong Kong based conglomerate led by CK Infrastructure Holdings yesterday, with the Australian firm agreeing to open its books. APA, whose assets include some 15000 km long gas transmission pipelines and storage, with wind and solar farms across Australia, said that it was in shareholders’ interests to engage further.

In a $40m and $6m share deal, Northern Oil & Gas Inc has acquired the Williston basin oil production and acreage from Salt Creek Oil & Gas LLC. Salt Creek’s major shareholder, Deutsche Rohstoff AG, said that the transaction value at closing was $63.6m. Northern O&G’s assets in Williston basin include 1,380 boe/d of production and 1,319 acres, held by production with an average net revenue interest of 86%.

Canada-based Akita Drilling is acquiring its rival Xtreme Drilling Corp. in a major C$209-million stock-cum-cash deal. The merged companies, which will operate under Akita’s umbrella, will have a total of 44 rigs in major resource basins in Canada and the United States. The merger is expected to help Akita sustain its position in the active Canadian markets. The merger is likely to be completed in Q3 of 2018-19.

State-owned Qatar Petroleum has signed an agreement with Exxon Mobil to become a 30% equity holder in ExxonMobil Exploration Argentina SRL and Mobil Argentina SA. The companies hold rights with other partners for seven blocks under unconventional exploration licenses with active drilling plans. This is, notably, Qatar Petroleum’s first investment in Argentina, and first ever international investment in unconventional resources.

Nigeria-based IBETO Cement Company Limited acquired US E&P firm, Century Petroleum Corporation. IBETO’s acquisition of 70 percent stake in Century through reverse merger has helped the company bypass the lengthy and complex process of going public. IBETO is expected to be the first Nigerian firm to be listed in the United States Stock Exchange.

Presidio Petroleum LLC has acquired Midstates Petroleum’s assets in Western Anadarko for $58 million. This acquisition has been facilitated by a major equity investment from Morgan Stanley Energy Partners (MSEP) in Presidio Petroleum. Presidio recently formed a strategic partnership with MSEP, which makes equity and equity-related investments in middle-market companies.

Indorama Ventures Public Co Limited (IVL) has completely acquired the Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET) plant of Mossi & Ghisolfi's (M&G) in Brazil, as stated by IVL in a filing with the Stock Exchange of Thailand. IVL took control of the operations in the plant as it completed all of the closing formalities on Thursday. The plant operates at a PET capacity of 550,000 tonnes/year.

Abu Dhabi's state-owned Mubadala Investment Company has acquired a 44 percent stake worth $271 million in Gazprom Neft-Vostok, an oil subsidiary of the Gazprom, Russia. The Russian oil subsidiary's combined production reduced by 3 percent to 1.64 million tons in 2017 following an agreement between OPEC, Russia, and other producers in the same year, to bring down global oil output to eliminate oversupply.

HPCL's CMD Mukesh K. Surana has stated that HPCL is looking towards acquiring MRPL by the end of the financial year 2018-19. A lot of synergies will arise from this merger for both HPCL and MRPL, all the while boosting HPCLs refining capacity and adding more products to its output. HPCL was acquired by ONGC earlier this year for Rs. 36,915 crores.

Offering a bid of US $10.8b, US centered Harbour Energy has made its final move to claim Santos Ltd, today. Harbour's offer has raised twice in a time span of five days If Santos Ltd comes into an agreement with this bid amount, Harbour will end up with stakes in LNG in the Asia-Pacific region, where demands are high.

The Houston-based E&P giant, ConocoPhillips is believed to be in contact with BP Plc to move forward with an asset swap deal. This agreement will eventually lead to BP taking over the Clair field asset, UK, while ConocoPhillips acquiring BP’s assets in the Alaskan region. However, no final resolutions have been reached between the companies and discussions might end with no results.

In collaboration with Geoex and Ghana Geophysical, ION Geophysical Corporation announced that acquisition has begun on a new 2D multi-client program offshore Ghana. Together with its partners, ION will acquire about 7,200 km of data in advance to understand better the hydrocarbon potential of the area.

As part of Shell's ongoing portfolio optimization to transform itself into a simpler company with stronger returns, a unit of the firm has sold 8.5 per cent stake in Mahanagar Gas Ltd. (MGL) retails CNG to automobiles and piped cooking gas to households in Mumbai and adjoining areas.  This reflects Shell’s commitment to grow in India.

The London Stock Exchange listed oil and gas exploration and development company, United Oil and Gas Plc, announced on the 2nd of March, 2018, the commencement of seismic acquisition on the Tullow Jamaica Ltd. operated Walton-Morant licence, offshore Jamaica. A vessel contracted to procure 3D seismic arrived in Kingston on Friday.