Oh my, yes…
Royal Dutch Shell Plc (RDSA) has started discussions with Anadarko Petroleum Corp. (APC) over a bid for the U.S. producer’s gas assets in Mozambique, where energy companies are looking to tap the largest discoveries in a decade, according to people familiar with the situation.
Europe’s biggest oil company has begun informal talks with Anadarko about a deal for some or all of its 36.5 percent stake in the Rovuma-1 offshore gas fields, though Anadarko is reluctant to sell before further results of exploration in the area are known, the people said, asking not to be identified because the talks are private.
A Royal Dutch Shell Plc deal for Rovuma-1, where an Anadarko-led group has found natural gas equal to as much as six times the U.K.’s existing reserves, would bring the Anglo-Dutch company’s capital and expertise to bear on a complex energy project.
Anadarko hasn’t begun a formal auction process for the stake, which could fetch about $8 billion based on the price Thai energy company PTT Exploration & Production Pcl (PTTEP) offered for the U.K.’s Cove Energy Plc, which holds 8.5 percent of the same fields, they said. Shell this week dropped a plan to buy Cove after its shares more than doubled in a bidding war with PTTEP.
“Big oil certainly see significant resource potential out of East Africa, with Mozambique today offering the largest prize,” said Theepan Jothilingan, an oil analyst at Nomura Holdings Inc. “It will be advantageous if you have one of them coming in on the development of the liquefied natural gas project and from that perspective Shell fits the bill. Anadarko will look to scale down at the right price.”
Anadarko shares rose 81 cents, or 1.1 percent, to close at $72.63 in New York, while Shell’s London shares gained 0.6 percent to 2,216 pence.
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