Centrica acquires North Sea assets from Total for $388M

Centrica Plc has reached an agreement with Total E&P UK Ltd to acquire their non-operated portfolio of producing oil and gas assets and associated infrastructure in the Central North Sea (CNS) for a total cash consideration of $388 million. Around 20% of the consideration is allocated to UK tax allowances. The transaction is effective 1-Jul-2011 and is expected to close on a field by field basis with earliest closing date expected to be in Jul-2012, subject to necessary approvals. Scotia Waterous has acted as an advisor to Total on this transaction. Continue reading here..

Majors willing to risk Iraqi contracts for Kurdistan riches?

Hussain Shahristani (Iraq’s Deputy Prime Minister for Energy) has warned Total would have to face “full consequences” if it signs oil deals with semi-autonomous Kurdistan (KRG). This warning follows Total’s statement which says that it is considering possible investments in Kurdistan. Continue reading here..

Total sells Colombian assets for $1 billion

Total has agreed to sell TEPMA BV to Sinochem . This fully owned affiliate of Total holds a working interest in the Cusiana field as well as a participation in OAM and ODC pipelines in Colombia. Total share of production of Cusiana is around 7,000 BOE/d. The sale follows a divestiture of 5 % WI in the Ocensa pipeline to Petrominerales and of another 5 % to Cepsa in July 2011. The combined value of the three transactions amounts to about US$ 1 billion. Continue reading here..

EnQuest, Premier Oil and Eni – Possible Acquirers for Ithaca

Calgary-based Ithaca Energy Inc said that it has received a non-binding proposal to acquire all of the outstanding shares of the company. The Ithaca board says talks are at a preliminary stage and there is no certainty that the non-binding proposal will lead to an offer. As a result, shareholders are not required to take any action and Ithaca does not intend to comment further unless a definitive agreement is reached. The possible buyers could be Apache Corp, Premier Oil Plc, Total SA, Dana Petroleum Plc, EnQuest Plc and ENI. Continue reading here..

Argentina Shale – Neuquen basin

Drilling results to date suggest that Argentina’s Neuquen Basin holds vast amounts of shale gas, tight gas and shale oil. The 137,000 km² basin, situated entirely onshore, is part of the Sub-Andean trend which extends the entire length of South America. Many analysts believe Neuquen shale’s geology to be better than that of Texas’ Eagle Ford. Continue reading here..

Shell joins Total and ConocoPhillips in Divesting Canadian Assets

PetroChina Company Ltd has entered into binding agreements to acquire 20% interest in Shell’s Groundbirch assets, located in Northeastern British Columbia. Continue reading here..

Total jumps on the Kurdistan bandwagon

Total is close to securing exploration rights over several oil and gas blocks in Iraqi Kurdistan. Continue reading here..

Shell, Chevron and other large oil companies Arctic-ing towards Pole position

Major companies such as Shell, Chevron, Total, Repsol, Statoil, Novatek and Cairn, amongst others have been expanding their exploration activities in and around the Arctic Sea. Continue reading here..

UK O&G Majors' Presentations - 2011

BP:
China’s energy future
2011 Statistical 60 Years Review


Shell:
March 2011 Investor Presentation
Goldman Sachs London 2011
Credit Suisse Energy Summit 2011

ExxonMobil:
2011 Analyst Meeting
2011 Business Model & Fundamental Strategies

ConocoPhillips:
Investor Presentation - June 2011
Investor Update - May 2011
2011 Annual Meeting of Stockholders
UBS Energy Conference 2011


TOTAL:
2010 Results and Outlook

Centrica Plc:
Annual General Meeting 2011

BG:
2011 Strategy Presentation

Nexen:
UBS Oil & Gas Conference
Investor Roadshow - May 2011
2011 Annual General Meeting

Chevron:
Tengiz Field Trip 2011
Eurasia Business Unit Overview
2011 Tengiz Field Trip - Europe, Eurasia and Middle East

ENI:
2011-2014 Strategy Presentation

Total enters Poland. Total acquires 49% interest in two shale gas concessions from ExxonMobil

Total reached an agreement with ExxonMobil to farm into the Chelm and Werbkowice exploration concessions with a 49% interest, subject to the approval of the Polish authorities. Under the terms of the agreement, ExxonMobil and Total will form a partnership operated by ExxonMobil, which retains a 51% interest. The entry into these concessions reflects Total’s commitment to expanding activities in unconventional gas, notably in Europe, a growth segment of the Group.

Awarded for a period of five years from March 2009 and December 2008 respectively, the Chelm and Werbkowice exploration concessions are located in the Lublin Basin in southeastern Poland and cover 1,162 square kilometres and 995 square kilometres. The work program for each concession comprises acquisition of seismic data, drilling of an exploratory well and a production test if drilling results are encouraging. To date ExxonMobil has already performed seismic acquisition works, as well as the drilling of an exploratory well on the Chelm concession currently being evaluated.

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A quick view on ExxonMobil’s shale gas licences in Poland 

Source: Derrick Petroleum - Euopean Unconventional Gas Database

Conoil wins $650 million bid for SPDC’s Nigeria OML 30!! Shell to continue divesting Nigeria blocks.

Nigeria's billionaire business mogul, Dr. Mike Adenuga Jnr, has won Shell's most prolific onshore oil block, OML 30, located in the Niger Delta. Adenuga's Conoil Producing had submitted a bid of $650 million for each of OMLs 30 and 42. Adenuga's acquisition covers Shell's 30% stake; Total's 10% interest, and Agip's 5% stake in OML 30. OML 30 is currently producing 45,000 barrels a day. According to a report by Africa Energy Intelligence, OML 30 has 350 million barrels of proven reserves.

Source: Shell Mar 2011 Investor PPT

Shell previously said it is looking to divest $5 billion in assets this year and has sold $30 billion in assets over the past five years. Shell's recently sold its stake in Niger Delta license OML 40 to Elcrest E&P Nigeria, and said it expects to conclude the sale of its stakes in two more onshore licenses soon.

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Shell, which has already sold four of its onshore licenses in the country, launched the process to offload its 30% stakes in OMLs 30, 34, 40 and 42 last year. The licenses were said to be valued at around $4 billion. The sales are part of a Shell plan to reduce its footprint onshore Nigeria, where militant attacks and oil theft have slashed the company's output since 2006. The decision to sell assets in Nigeria is also in line with the government's plan to promote indigenous participation in the industry. Essar offered $800 million for the stake in OML 30. Other bidders were said to be: Afren ($755 million); PanOcean ($750 million); Conoil ($650 million); African Petroleum ($515 million); and Oando ($450 million).

More Nigerian pieces up for grab!!

Source: Derrick Petroleum E&P Transactions Database

Strategic breakthrough for Total and CNOOC - acquire one-third of Tullow Oil's Ugandan assets for $2.9 billion!!!!

Tullow Oil plc (Tullow) announced that it has signed a Sale and Purchase Agreements (SPAs) with CNOOC and Total in respect of the sale of a one third interest to each party of the interests Tullow holds in Exploration Areas 1, 2 and 3A in Uganda. Tullow will retain a one third interest. The terms of the transactions include a total cash consideration payable to Tullow of US$2.9 billion.

With the signing of these SPAs, a key condition of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) agreed between Tullow, the Government of Uganda (GoU) and the Uganda Revenue Authority (URA) on 15 March 2011, has been satisfied. The next step is for Tullow to make certain tax related payments to the GoU, on receipt of which all relevant consents become final and the other provisions of the MoU become effective.

Under the MoU, Tullow and its new Partners, CNOOC and Total, have been granted new licences over EA-1 and an onshore area of EA-3A and the partnership's rights to develop the Kingfisher discovery have been confirmed. A clear plan for the resolution of tax disputes on the various asset sales has been agreed by the GoU, the URA and Tullow.

Tullow and its Partners will now reactivate the significant programme of exploration and appraisal drilling and progress their development plans for the basin which they will jointly present to the Government of Uganda for approval

For more information on East Africa oil & gas operations

Will Argentina lead the global shale gas race?

With shale gas drilling going global, energy importing nations are evaluating their own geology, currently, to see if they have shale reserves that can be tapped.  Likewise, Argentina which imports natural gas from neighboring Bolivia is set to win the global shale race where other countries in Asia, Europe and Africa are gearing up aswell. What is considered as the “game-changer” for the US, will shale gas success be replicated outside North America ,or for that matter, in Argentina?

Currently, Europe is in the limelight for being ahead of the shale gas activities, however, one needs to watch out who might be the next one?

Whats  happening in Argentina?

• In 2010, YPF announced a 4,500 billion cubic feet(Bcf)  shale gas  discovery in Loma de La Lata  conventional gas field  in the well known and productive Neuquen Basin in Patagonia.
• The Company has also formed a $140 million joint venture with the Brazilian iron ore and mining multinational, Vale, which will use the gas to develop a $4.3 billion dollar potassium project in nearby Mendoza.
• American Petrogas Inc, which holds about 16 exploration blocks, both for conventional and shale gas in the eastern and western parts of the Neuquen basin, thinks that its western blocks have the greatest potential for shale gas. It believes that about 100 tcf of gas is present in 9 of its blocks.
• Indian Farmers Fertilizer Cooperative (IFFCO), a strategic  alliance partner with American Petrogas Inc  in Argentina has invited two government owned Indian companies, Oil India and GAIL , to invest in its shale prospects.
• Apache Corporation expects to hold 900,000 net acres in the shale gas prone part of the Neuquen and has a partnership with YPF to develop shale gas in several prospective blocks. It is currently drilling the first horizontal multi fracture well in Argentina specifically to develop shale gas.
• Total acquired an interest in 4 shale gas blocks in the Neuquen and will explore in partnership with YPF. This follows the acquisition of an 85% interest in 2 other Neuquen shale gas blocks recently.  Total operates about a quarter of Argentina’s natural gas production. 

Recent Shale Gas Transactions in Argentina

Global Distribution

    Source: Hart Energy Global Shale Gas Study

The Society of Petroleum Engineers estimates 2,116 tcf of shale gas in South America.

• Argentina – Neuquen Basin, Austral Basin 
• Colombia – “Cretaceous organic – rich shale source rocks are present in both the Maracaibo and Middle Magdalena basin of Colombia and Venezuela.
• Peru – Ucayali Basin

As per Hart Energy Global Shale Gas Study, shale gas is plentiful around the globe. Conservative estimates place the total resource volume at about 20,000 Tcf. This volume is likely to increase as more shale gas plays are identified and evaluated.

However , the uncertainty still remains wheather the operators would be able to overcome the hurdles of tapping this source of stored energy. The biggest challenges to developing these resources outside of the US include:

• Access to acreage / resource
• Availability of rigs and skilled workforce
• Access to water and environmental concerns about waste water
• Finances, due to high cost of wells
• Necessary infrastructure to transport the gas once in production 

Total sells 5% interest in Angolan Block 31 for $983 million.. Indians, Chinese, Korean and Thai in queue to grab Exxon’s 25% in Block 31..

Total sold in December 2010 its 5% interest in Block 31, located in the Angolan ultra deep offshore, to the company China Sonangol International Holding Ltd, for approximately 742 million Euros (~US$983 million). Block 31 (water depths of 1,500- 2,500 m) is expected to produce 1,50,000 barrels of crude oil per day and output is expected to start in 2012. A total of 19 discoveries have been made in Block 31 with a total resource of 2 billion barrels of oil equivalent. The project is estimated to produce 490 million barrels of oil. A total of 48 production and injection wells are planned with development drilling currently underway. Work is also ongoing to pursue the development of discoveries comprising the Palas, Astraea, Juno and Dione discoveries.

BP is the operator of Block 31 with 26.7% interest. The other partners of the block include ExxonMobil with a 25% stake, Statoil with 13.3% and Marathon Oil with 10%. Sonangol, is the concessionaire of the block and owns a 20% stake.

Exxon’s 25% stake in Block 31 is up for sale!!

ExxonMobil is also planning to exit the block. OVL, overseas arm of ONGC, which is trying to acquire 25 ExxonMobil's 25% stake in the Block 31 may not get due to a higher bid from another company, its chairman said recently. We don't yet know who has bid more than OVL but it will be fair to guess that it might be a Chinese, Korean or even a Thai company," he said. "It is not that OVL is out of the race. They have an option to hike their bid. But more importantly, if the company at the forefront is not liked by Angolan government, Exxon may be forced to go to other bidder," the source close to the matter said.

Source: Derrick Petroleum M&A Database

Chinese, who had already lost the chance of acquiring stake in Angolan Block 32 in 2009, seems like it will not miss this opportunity!!