The Government of Hungary repatriated a 21% stake in Hungary’s lone oil company, MOL this week for $2.7 billion. The stake was acquired from Surgutneftegas who contentiously originally acquired the interest from Austrian based OMV in 2009. At the time of the initial acquisition, Hungarian authorities viewed the move as a “creeping takeover” by the Russian state and went as far as banning the company from voting in shareholder meetings until their ownership structure was revealed. Although no premium was paid by the Government of Hungary the purchase represents a profit of 34% on Surgutneftegas’ outlay two years ago.

Tullow Oil made two siginificant purchases this week, adding a mixture of North Sea and Ghanaian assets for a total of $743 million. In the North Sea Tullow acquired the Nuon E&P subsidiary of the Vattenfall Group for $438 million. The deal will add 30 producing fields, boosting Tullow’s production in the area by over 60% and lying in the Dutch portion of the North Sea the assets have crucially avoided the recent tax hikes from the UK

In Ghana, Tullow are acquiring the interests of the EO Group for $305 million which includes a 3.5% interest in the West Cape Three Point license and a 1.75% interest in the giant Jubilee field. Discovered in 2007 the Jubilee field reached an average production level of 70,000 boe/d in 2010 and is on track to reach its phase 1 plateau production of 120,000 b/d in the next few months.

Canadian intermediate company, Tourmaline Oil Corp continued their rapid expansion with the C$197 million acquisition of fellow Canadians Cinch Energy. Tourmaline only commenced operations in 2008 but after a series of acquisitions and an IPO in October 2010 the company now has a market cap of over $4 billion. With the assets of Cinch weighted almost 90% towards gas, the acquisition cost was at a slight premium to recent comparable deals that have been trading hands at prices in line with the subdued gas price in the country.

In the US Bakken, Kodiak Oil & Gas Corp added 25,000 acres to its portfolio with an $88 million acquisition. The price paid equates to over $3,000 per undeveloped acre which is broadly in line with the average cost per acre in the play so far in 2011 and brings the total spent in the play this year to just under $1 billion in 17 separate deals.

Top Deals of the Week

EvaluateEnergy  tracks every global upstream deal on a daily basis, estimating normalised deal value, in-depth financial and operating detail behind each deal and an explanation and opinion on deal rationale . Normalised deal value reveals underlying reserve values.

www.evaluateenergy.com