Deepening its global foray IOC to buy 10% in Petronas' LNG project for $900 mn

EXPANDING its global footprints, Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) is all set to acquire a 10-percent stake in Malaysian firm Petronas’ shale-gas and liquefied natural gas (LNG) project in British Columbia for Canadian $1 billion ($900 million). The Cabinet had cleared the proposal for this on February 12. The Maharatna oil major has already secured...
a one-year bridge loan to fund the deal. This move will mark the state-run oil major’s entry into North America.  
“I am pleased to announce we have just finalised a further 25-percent equity participation from an Indian party and an established Asian LNG buyer,” Petronas president & CEO Shamsul Azhar Abbas said at the LNG Supplies for Asian Markets conference in Singapore, according to the media reports.
Reports also say that IOC was buying 10 per cent (with an offtake pact), while the remaining 15 percent may be acquired by a Chinese firm.
Earlier in 2011, Petronas, through its wholly-owned subsidiary Petronas International Corp, had bought Canada’s Progress Energy Resources Corporation in a Canadian $5.2-billion deal to get the Altares, Lily and Kahta shale gas assets in Northeastern British Columbia.
In March 2013, Petronas had sold a 10-percent stake in the project to Japan Petroleum Exploration. Later, of the 50 percent stake Petronas was looking to offload, it sold a minority stake to Petroleum Brunei. The company is also looking to offload another 12 per cent in the project. Development of the shale gas resources and an LNG facility of 12 million tonnes a year have been pegged at $35 billion.
“We are in advanced talks with other buyers for the remaining 12 per cent,” Abbas said. IOC’s overseas portfolio includes nine oil blocks in Libya, Gabon, Nigeria, Timor-Leste, Yemen and Venezuela.
IOC and its subsidiary (Chennai Petroleum Corporation Ltd) account for 49 percent market share in the petroleum products segment, 31 percent national refining capacity and 71 percent downstream sector pipelines capacity in the country. The Indian Oil group of companies owns and operates 10 of India’s 22 refineries, with a combined refining capacity of 65.7 million tonnes a year. Indian Oil’s cross-country network of crude oil and product pipelines spans 11,214 km and has a capacity of 77.258 mtpa of crude oil and petroleum products and 10 million standard cubic metres a day of gas.
IndianOil is India's flagship national oil company with business interests straddling the entire hydrocarbon value chain – from refining, pipeline transportation and marketing of petroleum products to exploration and production of crude oil and gas, marketing of natural gas and petrochemicals. It is the leading Indian corporate in the Fortune 'Global 500' listing, ranked at the 88th position in the year 2013.