"PAUSING FOSSIL FUELS"(SIC)
Another Merger Being Explored in the U.S. Shale Space
As mergers and acquisitions heat up in the U.S. shale industry, U.S. oil and gas producer Devon Energy is looking to purchase Enerplus, anonymous sources told Reuters on Thursday.
The potential tie-up would see the $3 billion valued Enerplus acquired by $30 billion Devon Energy, adding to the string of other mergers and acquisitions in the North American oil and gas industry, including megadeals such as Exxon’s acquisition of Pioneer Natural Resources and Chevron’s acquisition of Hess, along with Occidental’s purchase of CrownRock, Exxon’s purchase of Denbury, and Chevron’s acquisition of PDC Energy.
The sources were clear that a deal was being discussed, but there was no certainty that a deal would for sure be reached.
Enerplus has assets in North Dakota’s Bakken and Pennsylvania’s Marcellus basin. Devon already has a presence in North Dakota, and an acquisition of more North Dakota assets will help spread out its reliance on other basins, such as the Delaware.
Enerplus already sold its Canadian assets back in 2022 as it shifted focus on its assets in the United States—in retrospect a seemingly wise move that allowed it to return more than $300 million to shareholders last year. Enerplus, however, has been criticized for its high spend on maintaining current levels of production.
Devon, too, ditched its entire Canadian business back in 2019 to Canadian Natural Resources—like Enerplus, it wanted to shift focus to the United States.
Enerplus is trading down year over year but perked up on Thursday on news of the possible deal, climbing by 7.54% on the day. Devon shares are also down from this time last year, but were trading up by nearly 2% on Thursday afternoon.
By Julianne Geiger for Oilprice.com
As mergers and acquisitions heat up in the U.S. shale industry, U.S. oil and gas producer Devon Energy is looking to purchase Enerplus, anonymous sources told Reuters on Thursday.
The potential tie-up would see the $3 billion valued Enerplus acquired by $30 billion Devon Energy, adding to the string of other mergers and acquisitions in the North American oil and gas industry, including megadeals such as Exxon’s acquisition of Pioneer Natural Resources and Chevron’s acquisition of Hess, along with Occidental’s purchase of CrownRock, Exxon’s purchase of Denbury, and Chevron’s acquisition of PDC Energy.
The sources were clear that a deal was being discussed, but there was no certainty that a deal would for sure be reached.
Enerplus has assets in North Dakota’s Bakken and Pennsylvania’s Marcellus basin. Devon already has a presence in North Dakota, and an acquisition of more North Dakota assets will help spread out its reliance on other basins, such as the Delaware.
Enerplus already sold its Canadian assets back in 2022 as it shifted focus on its assets in the United States—in retrospect a seemingly wise move that allowed it to return more than $300 million to shareholders last year. Enerplus, however, has been criticized for its high spend on maintaining current levels of production.
Devon, too, ditched its entire Canadian business back in 2019 to Canadian Natural Resources—like Enerplus, it wanted to shift focus to the United States.
Enerplus is trading down year over year but perked up on Thursday on news of the possible deal, climbing by 7.54% on the day. Devon shares are also down from this time last year, but were trading up by nearly 2% on Thursday afternoon.
By Julianne Geiger for Oilprice.com
Westmount Energy cheers new discovery offshore Namibia
08 Feb 2024
Exciting times lie ahead according to Westmount Energy Limited (AIM:WTE, OTCQB:WMELF) chair Gerard Walsh following news of a new discovery offshore Namibia.
Westmount, a small-cap investor in the oil and gas sector, has a minority shareholding in Africa Oil which in turn has an economic interest in TotalEnergies discoveries in Block 2913B.
Africa Oil earlier today highlighted the results from the Mangetti-1X which unearthed a new discovery and also confirmed the presence of the recently discovered Venus reservoirs in another location.
“Today's positive update by our investee AOC confirms our view that the Orange basin is a major emerging, prolific, hydrocarbon province which offers Westmount shareholders continuing exposure to high impact exploration and appraisal drilling outcomes," Walsh said.
“We also note the commentary provided yesterday at the TotalEnergies 2023 Results and 2024 Objectives presentations2, with the operator of the giant Venus Discovery indicating that the appraisal program and development planning was now focussed on the optimisation of the location of the first Development FPSO with respect to reservoir sweet spots in terms of permeability and productivity.
“In addition, the operator signalled a continuing aggressive exploration and appraisal program in 2024, with a Namibian E&A budget of circa $300M, and with another potential exploration drilling target already identified to the south of Venus.
“So an exciting program of drilling and testing lies ahead and we look forward to further newsflow in this regard."
Africa Oil has a material economic interest in the new discovery via its 31.1% shareholding in Impact Oil & Gas, which in turn holds a 20% stake in the TotalEnergies-led project.
Mangetti-1X has intersected hydrocarbon-bearing intervals in the Mangetti fan prospect, which is a similar but separate system to the Venus oil discovery (unearthed previously by the exploration joint venture).
This latest well also achieved its secondary objective, which was to intersect and appraise the Venus system in this location which is a northern extension area of the original discovery.
Africa Oil told investors that Mangetti has the potential to add additional recoverable resources to the project, and, that Impact and its partners are now working to determine the next step in the evaluation process.
"The positive results of the Mangetti-1X well present us with a new fairway opportunity, potentially adding a new recoverable resource base on Block 2913B,” Roger Tucker said in the Africa Oil statement.
“Our involvement in Block 2913B continues to be exciting, with further work underway to understand the potential of Mangetti, alongside the Venus-2A appraisal well, currently drilling.”
Elsewhere, the company noted a separate update from TotalEnergies related to the Akpo West field offshore Nigeria – where, as operator, the French major has now confirmed the start of production.
Africa Oil holds an economic interest in Akpo West via a 50% shareholding in Prime Oil & Gas, which in turn owns a 16% stake in the field.
Akpo West is expected to produce some 14,000 barrels of condensate per day, followed by 4 million cubic meters of gas per day starting in 2028, Africa Oil noted. “Akpo West presents us with advantaged and high netback production in a low operating cost and with a low emission project,” Rogers added.
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