In a further sign that China’s appetite for overseas energy resources remains vigorous, New Times Energy yesterday announced that it had completed significant oil and gas acquisitions in Utah in the US. So far this year, the value of announced Chinese outbound M&A in the sector totals $26.6 billion, including Cnooc’s $15.1 billion takeover of Canada’s Nexen.
New Times Energy said that it had bought an oil and gas operating firm, seven additional well bores and 280 acres located in Utah’s Uinta Basin in the US. The purchases mean that the company will have a total of 39 wells in the basin, where several leading oil majors and independent companies such as Exxon, Mobil and Newfield Exploration have been active. Uinta is considered to be one of the most promising new oil and gas producing basins in the country.
According to a signed agreement, Hong Kong-listed New Times Energy has paid an undisclosed amount for Tiger Energy Operating, a company licensed and bonded to operate oil and gas leases in Utah, a 100% working interest in the 80% net revenue interest of seven well bores and 280 acres — or about 40 acres per well — in the leases immediately surrounding these wells.
These new wells are located close to New Times Energy’s existing two workover wells in the Willow Creek area of the Uinta Basin; one of them will be used as an injector to stimulate the other. In a recent engineering report, there have been indications of proved and probable reserves in excess of 1.7 million barrels of oil, attributable to 18 of the 30 wells.
The company intends to work over and re-establish production in more than 30 wells, with a goal to reach 1,000 barrels per day of oil production by the end of 2013, said Stewart Cheng, chairman and executive director of New Times Energy in a statement.
Meanwhile, the purchase of Tiger is a strategic step as it will allow the company to operate its own oil and gas leases in Utah, and so controlling the pace, capital expenditures and techniques used in working over existing wells and drilling new wells, according to the statement.
The acquisition closely follows the signing of a strategic partnership three weeks ago between New Times Energy and China Petroleum and Pipeline Bureau (CPP) to jointly develop China’s domestic and overseas oil and gas business.
CPP is a subsidiary of China National Petroleum Corporation, specialising in oil and gas pipeline engineering and construction. It has built around 80% of China’s long-distance pipeline projects and over 80 pipelines and storage facilities projects and installed more than 10,000 kilometre of pipelines worldwide.
According to the agreement, New Times Energy will cooperate with CPP in the construction of LNG stations, the promotion of distributed energy projects with the aim to strengthen the distribution and processing of LNG stations from design to operation stages in China. The firm also expects to establish joint ventures with CPP to build LNG stations and related facilities.
Overseas, the two companies plan to cooperate in the development of oil and natural gas projects in South America, North America and other regions in such areas as exploration, exploitation and processing.
New Times Energy’s upstream oil and gas projects are situated in the Noroeste basin in the province of Salta, Formosa and Jujuy, Argentina and in the US states of Louisiana, Utah and Alaska. Only since July has the firm also been engaged in downstream LNG projects in China including LNG gas stations, gasification of industrial parks and rural modernisation projects.
New Times Energy “will continue to enrich to its oil and gas portfolio through strategic mergers and acquisitions and actively look for opportunities to broaden [its] income streams”, according to the statement released yesterday.
