Anadarko NEWS

Berkshire Hathaway Inc. sold its Occidental Petroleum Corp. common equity in the second quarter, due to its performance during the pandemic which highly affected the industry. Berkshire had built up the stake in addition to its $10 billion investment in preferred shares last year, which helped fund Occidental’s ill-fated takeover of Anadarko Petroleum Corp. Occidental tumbled 64% this year, making it the worst performer in the S&P 500 Energy Index.

Occidental Petroleum on Wednesday informed about ‘significantly’ reducing its workforce, after buying out its rival Anadarko Petroleum last year. Layoffs are currently underway across the company, after staff was cut through a voluntary program, spokeswoman Melissa Schoeb said. She added, “Occidental’s integration team identified the jobs we need to successfully and safely operate our business and achieve our synergy goals,”.

Occidental Petroleum yesterday reported $93 million in adjusted net income, disappointing the consensus estimate. The oil major, who recently acquired Anadarko, steered clear of the immediate impact of the acquisition move. Occidental's production in the quarter reached 1.155 million barrels of oil equivalent per day (BOE/D), up 70% from the corresponding quarter last year.

Occidental Petroleum yesterday concluded the $55 billion-acquisition of Anadarko Petroleum, with the assumption of Anadarko’s debt. Vicki Hollub, President and CEO at Occidental said, “With Anadarko’s world-class asset portfolio now officially part of Occidental, we begin our work to integrate our two companies and unlock the significant value of this combination for shareholders”.

Supermajor Chevron, yesterday, registered a 26.3% hike in profits for the second quarter that ended June 30th. Chevron’s net income from the quarter jumped to $4.31 billion, from $3.41 billion a year earlier. Chevron benefitted from a $1 billion breakup fee received from Anadarko Petroleum. The termination fee brought in additional $720 million to the Chevron’s profit.

Anadarko Petroleum reported a higher-than-expected quarterly profit yesterday, supported by higher production. However, the firm suffered a net loss on a $1 billion breakup fee compensated to Chevron Corp. Average daily production for Anadarko rose about 17% to 744,000 barrels of oil and gas in the second quarter. Occidental acquired Anadarko in a $38 billion deal, making it the largest producer in the Permian Basin.

EPC giant, TechnipFMC has landed subsea contracts for Anadarko’s Mozambique LNG Project. Valued at over $1 billion, the contract will require TechnipFMC to work in collaboration with Van Oord and Allseas to carry out the EPCI of the subsea hardware system. TechnipFMC also bagged separate contracts through its subsidiary FMCTI to deliver subsea hardware to support well construction and the EPCI scope.

The largest single energy project in Arica received approval recently. The energy firm Anadarko agreed for the construction of a $20 billion gas liquefaction and export terminal in Mozambique. Mozambique falls in the category of the poorest nations and so this project is expected to transform various segments of the nation. According to its government, this project might create more than 5,000 direct jobs and 45,000 indirect jobs.

Energy Minister of Algeria has informed that Algeria will block Total's acquisition of Anadarko's assets. He said, "Our ministry has contacted Anadarko to get explanations on this information, but so far we got no answer. It means there is no contract between Total and Anadarko." It was decided that if Occidental successfully takes over Anadarko, it will sell some of Anadarko's assets to Total for $8.8 billion.

Chief Executive of Total said that the strategy to acquire Anadarko's African assets is "perfectly fitting" with the company's overall strategy. The energy giant has decided to buy all the oil-and-gas-producing assets of Anadarko and its multibillion-dollar liquefied natural gas project in Mozambique, for $8.8 billion. "What we tell to investors is we play to our strengths. It is just fitting exactly and perfectly with what we announced," Pouyanne said.

E&P major, Anadarko has entered into a sales and purchase agreement with Japan’s JERA and Taiwan’s CPC to supply 1.6 MTPA of LNG. Anadarko will deliver the requisite volume from its Mozambique Area 1 project, over a period of 17 years. The Mozambique Area 1 project is operated by Anadarko, where Mitsui E&P, ENH Rovuma Área Um, ONGC Videsh, Beas Rovuma Energy Mozambique, BPRL Ventures Mozambique and PTTEP are partners.

In a major turn of events, supermajor Chevron pulled back from the takeover battle for Anadarko, yesterday. Occidental, which received $10 billion in financial assistance from Berkshire Hathaway, has emerged victorious in one of the largest takeover contests in the oil and gas industry. Chevron received a $1 billion breakup fee from Occidental Petroleum, to be utilized in a $5 billion share repurchase program.

Supermajor, Total yesterday inked an $8.8 billion asset purchase deal with Occidental, and dropped a new bombshell in the ongoing Chevron-Anadarko-Occidental battle. If Occidental wins the bid, then the binding agreement will require the firm to sell Anadarko Petroleum’s oil and gas assets in Africa. Post divestment, Occidental will gain ownership to the Western Midstream Partners and Anadarko’s acreages in U.S. shale basins, the Gulf of Mexico and South America.

In an interesting turn of events on Tuesday, Warren Buffett-owned Berkshire Hathaway backed Occidental’s $38 billion-bid for Anadarko. Berkshire commitment of $10 billion aid will greatly boost Occidental’s chances of securing a win in one of the biggest oil-industry takeover battles. However, the help comes at the cost of 100,000 preferred shares and a warrant to buy upto 80 million shares of Occidental at $62.50 apiece in a private offering.

According to the Chicago's investment firm Harris Associates, after Berkshire's $10 billion support to Occidental, Chevron no longer stands a chance to buy Anadarko. “I think at this point you would consider Chevron’s bid dead”, said chief investment officer at Harris. Buffet's firm decided to back Occidental a day after Anadarko agreed for the negotiations with Occidental.

Anadarko Petroleum's quaterly profit has gone far above the estimates of the analysts buoyed by higher sales volumes and lower costs. Currently, Anadarko has been caught amidst the bidding war between Occidental Petroleum Corp and Chevron Corp. The company's average sales volume of oil, natural gas and natural gas liquids jumped 11.2% to 715,000 boepd in the first quarter.

In a rather surprising move, Occidental Petroleum placed a new bid for the acquisition of Anadarko Petroleum on Wednesday. The new bid tops the $33 billion acquisition bid offered by supermajor, Chevron. If successful, the acquisition will add approximately quarter million acres to Occidental’s acreage in the Permian shale, all the while boosting its global production to 1.4 million barrels of oil and gas per day.

According to the sources, Delek and Ineos have emerged to be the top players for a package of North Sea oil and gas fields put on sale by Chevron. These two companies have put behind Premier Oil Plc, Chrysaor Holdings Ltd. and Oman’s Petrogas. After buying Anadarko last week for $33 billion, Chevron is planning to exit from the North Sea to focus more on US shale.