UAE to invest $3bn in Indonesia’s energy infrastructure

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) will invest US$3bn in energy projects ranging from oil refineries to infrastructure for electricity in Indonesia through a sovereign wealth fund set up by President Joko Widodo.

The Emirati companies will be equity investors partnering with Indonesian state-owned and private companies.

The deals include the Indonesian state-owned oil and natural gas corporation, Pertamina, upgrading a refinery for the Abu Dhabi National Oil Co (ADNOC). Pertamina will also sign a deal to buy between 170,000 tonnes and 520,000 tonnes of liquefied petroleum gas from ADNOC.

Indonesia’s state mining company Inalum and Emirates Global Aluminum will start a pilot project to increase Inalum’s production capacity.

Among the Indonesian partners in the projects will also be state utility PLN and private entities Maspion Group and Chandra Asri Petrochemical with no exact timeframe for funds given.

Indonesian President Widodo gave a keynote speech at a sustainability conference in the UEA. While in the country, he met with Crown Prince Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed to oversee the signing of 16 deals, including 11 oil and gas, petrochemical, port and telecommunications deals totalling US$22.89bn.

President Widodo “appreciates the significant progress in the bilateral cooperation between Indonesia and the United Arab Emirates”, according to a statement from Indonesia’s presidential secretariat, as the president is hoping for even closer relations between the two countries in the future.

A presidential secretariat spokesperson said: “The UAE would remain one of Indonesia’s key economic partners, especially in the investment sector.”

The president also invited the crown prince to join the steering board to build Indonesia’s new capital, according to the statement.

ADNOC also signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Chandra Asri Petrochemicals to investigate supplying naphtha as a feedstock for current and future cracking processes in Indonesia.

The UAE minister of state and ADNOC CEO Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber said: “The agreements signed with Pertamina and Chandra Asri will potentially help ADNOC to secure additional in-market presence in one of Southeast Asia’s fastest-growing economies, enabling new domestic value-creation opportunities across the hydrocarbon chain.”

As President Widodo has previously expressed regrets that Indonesia had not built a new oil refinery in the past 30 years, he takes a personal interest in programmes supporting new oil refineries and reinforcing existing ones.

Widodo’s government has been focused on tackling Indonesia’s widening current account deficit, which totalled US$31.1bn in 2018 and it is a result of rising fuel imports and capital goods purchases.

In 2019, UAE companies such as Abu Dhabi National Oil and Mubadala were among the ones which signed agreements with Indonesian firms to participate in investments in various sectors, including oil and gas.

Caspian Sunrise to buy offshore exploration vessel

Caspian Sunrise, an oil and gas exploration and production firm with a focus on Kazakhstan, has proposed to buy an offshore exploration drilling vessel.

A member of the Oraziman family owns a majority interest in the Caspian Explorer vessel. They will receive roughly 160,256,410 new Caspian Sunrise shares. The shares value $0.12 each.

The $25m deal will see the family boost their interest to 44.2% from 42.9%.

BP to sell North Sea assets to Premier Oil for $625m

BP has signed an agreement to sell its interests in the Andrew area in the central UK North Sea and its non-operating interest in the Shell-operated Shearwater field to Premier Oil for $625m.

The Andrew assets operated by BP comprise the Andrew platform, and Andrew (with 62.75% stake), Arundel (with 100% interest), Cyrus (100% stake), Farragon (50% stake) and Kinnoull (77.06% interest) fields. All these fields are located about 140 miles north-east of Aberdeen.

BP holds a 27.5% interest in the Shearwater field.

Rockhopper signs deal for Sea Lion oil field with Premier Oil, Navitas

The UK-based oil and gas exploration and production firm Rockhopper Exploration has signed Heads of Terms (HoT) with Premier Oil Exploration and Production and Navitas Petroleum for a 30% stake in the Sea Lion oil field project.

Located in the Falkland Islands off the Argentinean coast, the Sea Lion oil field is part of the exploration licence PL032 in the North Falkland Basin.

JOG to buy stake in Verbier field in North Sea from Equinor

Jersey Oil & Gas (JOG) has signed an agreement to acquire Equinor UK’s 70% operated interest in licence P2170 in the central North Sea.

Covering blocks 20 / 5b and 21 / 1d, the P2170 concession includes the Verbier oil discovery. Discovered in 2017, Verbier lies 100km north-east of Aberdeen, UK.

MOL to acquire stakes in Azerbaijan’s ACG field and BTC pipeline

MOL Group has signed an agreement with Chevron Global Ventures and Chevron BTC Pipeline to acquire their non-operated E&P and mid-stream interests in Azerbaijan for $1.57bn. MOL will purchase 9.57% stake in the Azeri-Chirag-Gunashli (ACG) oil field and 8.9% stake in the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline which transports crude to the port of Ceyhan. The transaction will make MOL  the third largest field partner in ACG.