LNG

Bickering between US Vice President Kamila Harris and former President Donald Trump in the run-up to the US election is not hampering the steady growth of the shale gas industry and LNG majors. Focus on profitability and shareholder returns – rather than production growth – means the industry is unlikely to be influenced by promises of support or potential regulations from either candidate.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission said it would not oppose the proposed acquisition of Refinitiv Parent Limited (Refinitiv), the analytics and data firm covering financial and energy markets, by the London Stock Exchange Group in a £24 billion (US$31Bln) deal.

Occidental Petroleum, the Texas-based company competing with Chevron Corp. to take over Anadarko Petroleum for around $55 billion including debt, has had its revised offer endorsed by the Anadarko board, including the sale of its Mozambique LNG stake and other African assets to French major Total if the deal is finalized.

“Anadarko’s board of directors, in consultation with its financial and legal advisors, has unanimously determined that the revised acquisition proposal it received from Occidental Petroleum on May 5 constitutes a ‘Superior Proposal’ as defined in Anadarko's previously announced merger agreement with Chevron Corp.,” said Anadarko.

The US takeover target added that Chevron has four business days ending on May 10 to increase its offer in accordance with the terms of the Chevron Merger Agreement signed on April 12.

“If Anadarko terminates the Chevron Merger Agreement in order to enter into a definitive agreement with Occidental, Anadarko will pay Chevron a $1 billion termination fee as required by the Agreement,” explained Anadarko.

Occidental’s latest offer amounts to 78 percent cash and 22 percent in Occidental shares, rather than the previous 50-50 split.

The bid is valued at around $38Bln versus $33Bln for the Chevron offer. In addition, the winning bidder would have to assume around $17Bln of Anadarko debts.

In connection with Occidental’s proposal to acquire Anadarko, Occidental has entered into a binding agreement to sell Anadarko’s Algeria, Ghana, Mozambique and South Africa assets to France's Total for $8.8Bln.

Anadarko, whose headquarters are near Houston, is being targeted because of the Mozambique LNG holdings and its strength in US shale production, especially in the Delaware Basin of Texas and New Mexico. Its other main US assets are in Colorado and the Gulf of Mexico.

Anadarko had said it was positioned to take a final investment decision on Mozambique LNG in the first half of this year.

The Anadarko-led Mozambique venture will be the African nation’s first onshore development, initially consisting of two liquefaction Trains with nameplate capacity of 12.9 million tonnes per annum.

Feed-gas would come from the Golfinho-Atum gas fields located within Anadarko’s offshore Area 1 licence of the Rovuma Basin. 

Analysts noted that Chevron is a substantial LNG player and operates two world-class plants in Western Australia and would fit with Anadarko’s development plans for Mozambique.

Occidental, a major North American chemicals manufacturer, has no LNG assets and is centred on US oil and gas as well as midstream, marketing and refining.

France’s Total is now hoping that the Occidental takeover bid for Anadarko is successful because of its deal with Occidental for Anadarko's Mozambique LNG stake and other African holdings.

“If completed, the acquisition offers us the opportunity to acquire a world-class portfolio of assets in Africa, further enhancing our position as the leading IOC on the continent,” said Total Chief Executive Patrick Pouyanne.

“We would be able to leverage our expertise in LNG by operating a major project in Mozambique and in Deepwater in Ghana and we would become operator of major Algerian oil assets where we are already a partner,” he explained.

Dominion Energy, owner of the US Cove Point LNG export plant in Maryland, told South Carolina state senators that the state could either accept Dominion's proposed $14.6 billion takeover offer to buy the local Scana Corp., or they could watch the troubled public utility potentially fall into bankruptcy.

Dominion Energy, owner of the Cove Point liquefied natural gas liquefaction facility on Chesapeake Bay in the state of Maryland, has confirmed a deal to buy troubled US energy company Scana Corp. in an all-stock transaction, and including debt, with a total value of about $14.6 billion just as it has become the second US LNG exporter with a plant now on stream.

Australian Energy company AWE, a stakeholder in the largest onshore natural gas discovery in Western Australia for 40 years, has become the subject of a takeover battle between a Chinese state-owned company and an Australian mining business, Mineral Resources, amid plans for gas to be shipped as LNG from western to eastern Australia.

Shale regions of the US oil and gas industry, which are at the centre of the shale-gas boom for LNG exports and the availability of more domestic oil supplies, hit a record value in terms of mergers and acquisitions in the first quarter of 2017, according to a new report.

Australia's Hastings Funds Management will divest its 25% stake in Freeport LNG Development L.P. to specialist fund Global Infrastructure Partners, who agreed to pay $850 million - over five times more than what Hastings paid for years ago.