Joint Venture NEWS

Baker Hughes and Akastor ASA have announced an agreement to create a joint venture company that will bring together Baker Hughes’ Subsea Drilling Systems business with Akastor’s wholly-owned subsidiary, MHWirth AS. The JV will deliver a global full-service offshore drilling equipment offering that will provide customers with a broad portfolio of products and services. The Company will be owned 50-50 by Baker Hughes and Akastor. Merrill A. “Pete” Miller will serve as chairman and chief executive officer.

Japanese oil refiner Idemitsu Kosan will end its petrochemical joint venture with German chemical manufacturer, BASF due to slumping demand. The joint venture will end in December and its Chiba plant will be closed for making butanediol, an organic compound used in stretchable fibres and engineering plastics. Idemitsu is also planning to exit from the butanediol business soon.

Indian Oil Corp. has formed an equal joint venture with France’s Total to manufacture and market high-quality bitumen derivatives and specialty products for India’s growing road-building industry. The joint venture will set up manufacturing units across the country and also explore the possibility of catering to other South Asian markets. The joint venture would commence by taking over an existing plant of Total at Jodhpur in Rajasthan.

French Geoscience company, CGG has informed about concluding its withdrawal from the marine seismic acquisition business. CGG farmed out the marine seismic acquisition business in a strategic partnership transaction to Shearwater GeoServices. CGG also informed about the creation of a joint venture under the Sercel brand for the research and development, manufacturing, commercialization, and support of marine streamer seismic acquisition equipment.

Billionaire Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries has inked a framework agreement with state-run ADNOC to explore development of an Ethylene Dichloride (EDC) facility in Ruwais. RIL will utilize the proposed unit to procure EDC, a key raw material used in the manufacturing of Polyvinyl chloride (PVC). ADNOC would provide Ethylene to the proposed venture and offer access to the infrastructure at Ruwais.

Energy investment management firm, Pickering Energy Partners has formed a strategic joint venture with Henry Resources. The JV will engage in the acquisitions of already producing oil and gas assets across the Permian basin. The terms of the partnership dictate that the two firms will aim at invest at least $500 million in producing asset packages to be controlled by the Henry team.

Oilfield services major, Petrofac’s joint venture Azerbaijani state-run firm, SOCAR has won an Engineering and Technical Services contract in Azerbaijan. The contract will require Petrofac-SOCAR JV to support activities in the Absheron natural gas field, located in the Caspian Sea. French supermajor, Total and SOCAR own 50% stakes each in the Absheron field.

As announced in January, ADNOC and Eni have now closed their strategic partnership. After this, Eni acquired a 20% interest in ADNOC refining. OMV is also a partner of this new venture. Eni and OMV will help ADNOC to manage its international product flows and streamline its systems. "With this transaction, Eni enters the UAE downstream sector and increases its global refining capacity by 35 per cent", said Eni.

Maharashtra’s Chief Minister yesterday informed about identifying a new site for the proposed $44 billion oil refinery built by a joint venture between Saudi Aramco, ADNOC and state-run oil firms. Maharashtra has selected Raigad district, about 100 kms from Mumbai for the refinery. The 1.2 million bpd refinery and associated petrochemical complex, which was earlier supposed to be constructed in Ratnagiri, faced vehement protests from the farmers in the region.

Heads of Agreement has been signed between NOVATEK, Sinopec and Gazprombank. This joint venture will focus on marketing LNG and natural gas to end-customers in China. The decision of forming JV was taken during the official visit of the President of the People’s Republic of China to the Russian Federation. NOVATEK's Chairman said, "This represents another step in implementing our long-term strategy across the entire value chain”.

Chairman of GAIL has informed that the gas firm has signed an initial agreement with energy giant ExxonMobil. Both the companies will jointly work to explore ways of supplying natural gas to power and transportation sector in India. This venture will help with the expansion of the gas business in the country. Further, GAIL is also competing to buy IL&FS’s 874 MW operational wind energy assets.

If sources were to be believed, ExxonMobil and state-owned GAIL (India) Ltd are in talks to form a joint venture in the country. Exxon’s renewed focus on India is an acknowledgment of the rising energy consumption in India. Chairman and MD at GAIL said, “The discussions are on. We are likely to make an announcement in a fortnight or so,".

In a statement released yesterday, oil giant Saudi Aramco informed that it will buy out Shell’s stake in refining joint venture SASREF for approximately $631 million. The Saudi Aramco Shell Refinery Co. (SASREF) facility holds a processing capacity of 305,000 barrels of crude oil per day. While the acquisition is in part of Aramco’s downstream expansion strategy, it falls in line with Shell’s renewed focus on lower carbon businesses.

OMV and ADNOC have agreed to work together in the petrochemical sector. Both companies will look for better opportunities and will make use of OMV's recycling expertise. Austria's energy company has agreed to pay $2.5 billion to ADNOC for 15% stakes in its refining business. Further, both the companies have signed two MoUs to explore future projects and set up a JV.

Dana Gas has awarded a deep-water drilling services contract in the Egyptian Mediterranean basin to ADES International. ADES’ subsidiary ADES S.A.E. entered the agreement, with services being provided by Vantage’s Tungsten Explorer drillship. The services will be subcontracted to the JV between ADES and Vantage Drilling, ADVantage. The contract includes one firm well and is slated for completion in 77 days.

Oilfield service giant, Schlumberger and Rockwell Automation have inked an agreement to establish a joint venture, Sensia. The first fully integrated digital oilfield automation solutions provider, Sensia will offer its users scalable, cloud and edge-enabled process automation. The deal is expected to close soon, and the JV will begin operation, in the summer of 2019. While Rockwell Automation owns 53% in the JV, Schlumberger possesses 47% interest in the partnership.

Qatar-based Nakilat has entered into an agreement with EPC giant, McDermott to form a joint venture, which will provide onshore and offshore fabrication services in Qatar. The formation of the joint venture is in line with Qatar’s recent localisation program, which aims at enhancing the resilience of the energy sector’s supply chain. The strategic partnership will boost productivity levels at Nakilat’s world-class Erhama Bin Jaber Al Jalahma Shipyard.

Australia-based Sheffield Resources has contracted the joint venture between Woodside and Energy Developments (EDL) to supply LNG to the Thunderbird mineral sands project. According to the 15-year deal, the JV will deliver 1950 terajoules of LNG annually to the project. LNG will be supplied from Woodside’s Pluto facility through a road tanker fleet. The Thunderbird project has a mine life of 42 years, and production will begin in 2020.