Deals of the Week: Apache and Crescent Point Energy Play it Safe with Bolt-On Acquisitions
This week’s upstream M&A was dominated by two large bolt-on acquisitions by Apache and Crescent Point Energy, within North America. Although the deals lacked the sensationalism that comes from a company making a bold move into a new area, they both involved oil weighted producing assets with additional upside in areas that the companies have .. read more
Deals of the Week: ConocoPhillips is Biggest Spender in First Gulf of Mexico Lease Sale Since Horizon Disaster
This week, the Gulf of Mexico held its first lease sale since the Horizon oil spill of April 2010. The Western Gulf of Mexico Lease Sale 218 reaped a total of $337 million, with 20 companies gaining tracts. ConocoPhillips was the most prominent among the successful bidders, gaining the most tracts (75 – spending $159 .. read more
Deals of the Week: Total Plays it Safe in North Sea Whilst Peers Gamble on Nigeria
There were three large deals by super majors this week as Total played it safe by acquiring a producing North Sea asset whilst Royal Dutch Shell and ENI opted for a high risk but high reward asset in Nigeria. The North Sea acquisition concerns a 10.4% interest in the Elgin & Franklin fields previously owned .. read more
Deals of the Week: BP Wins Shareholders Over with Extended Divestiture Programme
Following the frenetic mega-deals of last week, including Kinder Morgan’s $38 billion acquisition of El Paso and Statoil’s $4.7 billion acquisition of Brigham Exploration, the pace of deals this week slowed to a crawl. While all the headlines are being grabbed by Q3 earnings figures, there was not a single deal over the value of .. read more
Deals of the Week: Premier Make an Opportunistic Grab for Encore Oil
Premier Oil made a timely offer for fellow North Sea exploration company Encore Oil this week, for a consideration of $325 million (net of cash held by Encore). The offer per share, which has been recommended by the board, is for either £0.70 in cash or 0.2067 shares of Premier Oil, representing a 55% premium .. read more
Deals of the Week: North Sea Deals Back in Vogue Despite Tax Hike
For the second week in a row, North Sea assets have featured heavily in the upstream M&A sector. Back in March 2011, when the UK budget announced an increase in the supplemental tax to 32%, there was widespread condemnation and threats of withdrawal from some senior companies within the industry. The UK Government however called .. read more
Weekly Energy Round-Up: Chevron Commits to Wheatstone Project as China Looks Abroad For Shale Gas Investment
Wheatstone Project Gets Green Light This week, Chevron announced the final investment decision (FID) for its Wheatstone project in Western Australia. The initial $29 billion project involves the construction of two Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) processing trains with a combined annual capacity of 8.9 million tonnes. The project received federal approval last week for an .. read more
Weekly Energy Round-Up: Tullow & Total Make Important Discoveries as Cairn Falters
Tullow Makes French Guiana Oil Discovery, New Basin Unlocked Tullow Oil this week announced a major success with its Zaedyus exploration well in French Guiana in South America. The Zaedyus exploration well was drilled in the Guyane Maritime license, and made an oil discovery, encountering 72 metres of net oil pay in two turbidite fans. .. read more
Deals of the Week: Hayward’s Vallares Announces Kurdistan Merger
Vallares Plc, the acquisition vehicle formed in June 2011 by former BP Chief Exec Tony Hayward and Nathaniel Rothschild, announced the $2.1 billion reverse takeover of Turkish company Genel Energy International Ltd this week. Not only is Genel the largest producer in the Kurdistan region, with production of around 41,000 boe/d, the company has major .. read more
Deals of the Week: ExxonMobil Replaces BP in Arctic JV with Rosneft
This week saw Rosneft potentially gain a new partner in the Kara Sea and Russian Arctic following the collapse of the BP agreement in May, after TNK-BP forced BP to cancel the deal through the courts. US giant ExxonMobil has stepped in with a total investment of $3.2 billion to gain a 33.3% interest in .. read more