US Marathon Oil to Sell its Irish Asset to PETRONAS

The US' Marathon Oil has agreed to sell most of its Irish assets to PETRONAS for $180 million.also include a 100% interest in the company's gas storage business with current capacity of 7 billion cubic feet.  

This acquisition includes a 86% stake in the producing Seven Heads gas fieldand a 100% operated interest in the Kinsale Head Area comprising Kinsale Head, South West Kinsale and the Ballycotton gas fields, as well as an 86% interest in the gas producing Seven Heads field which is tied back to Kinsale. All the gas fields at Kinsale area are estimated for current net production of 36 million cf/day. 

Petronas subsidiary Star Energy was appointed for Petronas behalf responsible for the acquisition. 

New Gas Fields Found in Mozambique

Two new natural gas fields were found in the southern Inhambane province of Mozambique. The gas field discovery is foreseen for domestic demand for natural gas as suggested by Mineral Resources Minister Esperanca Bias of Mozambique including for electricity generartion, fertiliser factory and fuel for vehicles.

Under Mozambican law, any consortium that has discovered gas reserves has six months to assess its findings and present a report to the government. In this case, the player will be South Africa's Sasol , Malaysia's Petronas and the Mozambican government. Sasol, the world's biggest maker of diesel from coal, owns 50 percent of the project, Petronas owns 35 percent, while the government of Mozambique holds 15 percent through national oil company Empresa Nacional De Hidrocarbonetos De Mozambique (ENH). 

Dow & PIC Setting up a JV Petchem

Dow Chemical and Kuwait’s Petrochemical Industries Co (PIC) have been reportedly signing a mutual agreement for a $17.4 billion K-Dow petrochemicals joint venture. It is estimated that K-Dow would generate $11 to $15 billion annual sales with the new JV which includes Dow's existing joint-ventures MEGlobal and Equipolymers. 

The 50:50 JV company will use Dow's strength from its olefins and polyolefins capacity turning it to be a major producer of petrochemicals and plastics including polyethylene, ethylene amines, ethanolamines, polypropylene and polycarbonate. K-Dow is also seen to be one of the important polypropylene technology and market related catalysts licensor.