ENERGY INDUSTRIES – AUSTRALIA

Oil Search could be crushed in InterOil battle

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Original article by Angela Macdonald-Smith
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 20 : 15-Jul-16

Proxy adviser ISS has endorsed Oil Search’s $US2.2bn takeover bid for InterOil, with the target’s shareholders scheduled to vote on the deal on 26 July 2016. However, ExxonMobil is believed to be poised to outbid Oil Search with an offer that is about 10 per cent higher. ExxonMobil – which is Oil Search’s partner in the Papua New Guinea LNG project – has not been officially confirmed as the rival suitor for InterOil.

CORPORATES
OIL SEARCH LIMITED – ASX OSH, INTEROIL CORPORATION, EXXONMOBIL CORPORATION, TOTAL SA, INSTITUTIONAL SHAREHOLDER SERVICES INCORPORATED

Woodside signs $560m African deal

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Original article by Matt Chambers
The Australian – Page: 22 : 15-Jul-16

Australian-listed Woodside Petroleum will acquire ConocoPhillips’ stake in exploration acreage off the coast of Senegal for $US430m ($A563.4m). The deal includes ConocoPhillips’ 35 per cent stake in the SNE and FAN deepwater oil discoveries. Woodside has estimated that the SNE discovery could potentially yield about 560 million barrels of oil. The listed FAR is a partner in the Senegal joint venture, which is operated by UK-based Cairn Energy.

CORPORATES
WOODSIDE PETROLEUM LIMITED – ASX WPL, CONOCOPHILLIPS, FAR LIMITED – ASX FAR, CAIRN ENERGY PLC, ALLAN GRAY AUSTRALIA PTY LTD, OIL SEARCH LIMITED – ASX OSH, DEUTSCHE BANK AG

Oil Search sweetener needed for InterOil

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Original article by Angela Macdonald-Smith, Sarah Thompson
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 1 & 11 : 12-Jul-16

ExxonMobil is believed to be the unnamed company that is seeking to trump Oil Search’s $US2.2bn ($A2.9bn) takeover bid for InterOil. The target has commenced negotiations with the as-yet identified suitor, which made an initial approach in late June 2016, and is understood to have made a scrip-based offer that is 10 per cent higher than the Oil Search bid. All three players have exposure to Papua New Guinea’s LNG sector.

CORPORATES
OIL SEARCH LIMITED – ASX OSH, INTEROIL CORPORATION, EXXONMOBIL CORPORATION, CITIGROUP PTY LTD, TOTAL SA

InterOil AGM voting stirs deal worries

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Original article by Angela Macdonald-Smith
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 15 & 20 : 16-Jun-16

InterOil’s former CEO Phil Mulacek has failed in his bid for a board spill, although he received a high level of support at the takeover target’s 2016 AGM. Some 31 per cent of votes cast backed his stance, and Oil Search’s $US2.2bn takeover bid will fail if 33 per cent of InterOil shareholders vote against it on 28 July. Oil Search CEO Peter Botten intends to hold further meetings with InterOil’s shareholders in the lead-up to the vote.

CORPORATES
OIL SEARCH LIMITED – ASX OSH, INTEROIL CORPORATION, TOTAL SA, CAPITAL GROUP COMPANIES INCORPORATED, EXXONMOBIL CORPORATION

After 50 years, Exxon and BHP quietly pull plug on Bass Strait oil

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Original article by Matt Chambers
The Australian – Page: 19 & 26 : 15-Jun-16

Oil output in Bass Strait has fallen to around 40,000 barrels a day, compared with 500,000 a day when production was at its peak. ExxonMobil is believed to be seeking to offload a number of production licences in Bass Strait, which has yielded more than four billion barrels of oil for the group since it established a joint venture with BHP Billiton in the 1960s. The Bass Strait oilfields’ reserves are rapidly being exhausted, although the region holds considerable gas reserves.

CORPORATES
EXXONMOBIL CORPORATION, BHP BILLITON LIMITED – ASX BHP, SCHLUMBERGER LIMITED, CITIGROUP PTY LTD

Dissident push falters at InterOil

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Original article by Brian Robins
The Sydney Morning Herald – Page: 20 : 13-Jun-16

Takeover target InterOil has advised that its annual meeting will proceed on 14 June 2016, after a court dismissed an application by ex-CEO Phil Mulacek to have it delayed. Shareholders will vote on Mulacek’s push for a board spill. He opposes a $US2.2 billion ($A3bn) bid for the company by Australian-listed Oil Search, arguing that the offer undervalues InterOil. The majority of institutional investors are believed to support the bid.

CORPORATES
INTEROIL CORPORATION, OIL SEARCH LIMITED – ASX OSH, EXXONMOBIL CORPORATION, SUPREME COURT OF YUKON

Low prices knock sense into producers

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Original article by Angela Macdonald-Smith
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 27 : 10-Jun-16

There is growing recognition among Australian energy groups of the need to continue reducing costs, amid sustained weakness in the crude oil price and a growing oversupply in the LNG market. Santos CEO Kevin Gallagher has suggested greater collaboration among rival LNG groups and has raised the possibility of LNG infrastructure being owned by independent operators rather than producers. Meanwhile, Woodside Petroleum CEO Peter Coleman has acknowledged that the LNG projects in Queensland have cost much more than originally budgeted.

CORPORATES
SANTOS LIMITED – ASX STO, WOODSIDE PETROLEUM LIMITED – ASX WPL, OIL SEARCH LIMITED – ASX OSH, NOVA SYSTEMS, ORIGIN ENERGY LIMITED – ASX ORG, AUSTRALIAN PETROLEUM PRODUCTION AND EXPLORATION ASSOCIATION LIMITED, INTERNATIONAL ENERGY AGENCY, CLOUGH LIMITED, McKINSEY AND COMPANY, CB&I INCORPORATED, SHELL COMPANY OF AUSTRALIA LIMITED

Oil Search bid set for success

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Original article by Matt Chambers
The Australian – Page: 22 : 24-May-16

Papua New Guinea Prime Minister Peter O’Neill says people in his nation will directly benefit from the takeover bid for InterOil by Australian-listed Oil Search. The $US2.2bn bid comprises 8.05 of Oil Search’s shares for each InterOil share, which values the bid at $US40.25 per share. InterOil shares have risen by 38 per cent to $US43.63 in response to the bid. Oil Search intends to on-sell part of InterOil’s stake in the Papua LNG project to Total if the bid succeeds.

CORPORATES
OIL SEARCH LIMITED – ASX OSH, INTEROIL CORPORATION, TOTAL SA, PAPUA NEW GUINEA. OFFICE OF THE PRIME MINISTER, EXXONMOBIL CORPORATION, RAYMOND JAMES AND ASSOCIATES

Fortescue backs offshore competition on gas reservation

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Original article by Angela Macdonald-Smith
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 19 : 20-May-16

Fortescue Metals Group believes that changes to Australia’s lease retention system for oil and gas fields should be a higher priority than the Australian Labor Party’s proposed national interest test for LNG export projects. Fortescue, as a major user of gas, argues that scrapping the so-called "use it or lose it" system would be more effective in increasing the supply of gas for domestic customers. The lease retention system has come under scrutiny in the wake of Woodside Petroleum’s decision to put the Browse LNG project on hold.

CORPORATES
FORTESCUE METALS GROUP LIMITED – ASX FMG, AUSTRALIAN LABOR PARTY, WOODSIDE PETROLEUM LIMITED – ASX WPL, APACHE CORPORATION, QUADRANT ENERGY PTY LTD, HESS CORPORATION, MURPHY OIL CORPORATION, AUSTRALIAN COMPETITION AND CONSUMER COMMISSION, DELOITTE TOUCHE TOHMATSU LIMITED, BHP BILLITON LIMITED – ASX BHP, ORGANISATION FOR ECONOMIC CO-OPERATION AND DEVELOPMENT, EXXON CHEMICAL COMPANY

Policy dividing state’s industry

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Original article by Paul Garvey
The Australian – Page: 6 : 19-May-16

Energy Quest’s Graeme Bethune says Western Australia’s requirement that 15 per cent of LNG production must be reserved for domestic use does not appear to have had much impact on gas prices in the state. Critics of the policy include the state’s Economic Regulation Authority, which concluded in 2014 that it deters investment in the gas industry. However, the DomGas alliance argues that there has been a sharp rise in investment since the policy was introduced in 2006.

CORPORATES
ENERGYQUEST PTY LTD, WESTERN AUSTRALIA. ECONOMIC REGULATION AUTHORITY, DOMGAS ALLIANCE, CHEVRON CORPORATION, FORTESCUE METALS GROUP LIMITED – ASX FMG, AUSTRALIAN LABOR PARTY, WESTERN AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF THE PREMIER AND CABINET, SINO IRON PTY LTD