M&A in Southeast Asia - 2024 Q1

Q1 has been quiet in terms of deal count with two new deals announced in Southeast Asia, one in Malaysia and one in Vietnam. A transaction value was only announced for one of the deals, with a deal value of about US $903 million.

Given this is Q1, the running totals for 2024 are therefore also two deals, with a total deal value of US $903 million. As a comparison, Q1 2023 saw 4 deals with a total value of about US $46 million.

New deals announced in Q1

The two deals announced in Q1 were:

• At the end of January, TotalEnergies announced that they had agreed to acquire OMV's 50% interest in SapuraOMV. The transaction is for a consideration of US$ 903 million (including the transfer of a US$ 350 million loan granted by OMV to SapuraOMV) and is subject to customary conditions precedent, in particular the receipt of regulatory approvals. Closing is expected by the end of first half of 2024. My full analysis of the deal can be found here: https://www.dhirubhai.net/pulse/malaysia-ma-totalenergies-acquire-omvs-50-interest-robert-chambers-juhgf/.
• In late-February, PVEP announced an agreement that sees Vietsovpetro farm into exploration Block 09-2/10 in the Cuu Long basin. I believe PVEP previously held 100% in the block. I have not seen any details of the stake taken by Vietsovpetro but it has been reported that they are now the operator. Whilst not confirmed, I have assumed this deal is complete.

In addition, since my Q4 analysis, I have identified Avenir Energy as the company that acquired Tap Oil from Risco in late-November 2023.

We also saw some new awards in the quarter, with two DROs awarded in Malaysia. In late-February, the BIGST Cluster was awarded to PETRONAS / JX Nippon (50:50) and the Tembakau Cluster was awarded to IPC (100%).

Other relevant news this quarter came in early March, when Hess signaled its agreement to be bought by Chevron could be delayed after ExxonMobil filed for arbitration regarding its pre-emption rights to the Stabroek block offshore Guyana. I looked at the impact of the Chevron-Hess deal for Southeast Asia in this article: https://www.dhirubhai.net/pulse/ma-chevron-acquire-hess-what-means-region-robert-chambers-ew6xe/

Deals that closed in Q1

From what I can see, there were two deals that had previously been announced that closed in this quarter.

• In June, Criterium Energy announced a deal to acquire Mont D'Or. These were my thoughts when the deal was announced: https://lnkd.in/er6RjD_4. After some issues, a restructured deal was announced in September and the deal was announced as complete in early-January.
• In late-July, Energi Mega Persada (EMP) announced the acquisition of a 90% stake in the Siak and Kampar PSCs from Pertamina. In December, it was reported that the remaining 10% stakes in these two PSCs had been transferred to PT Riau Petroleum, the designated local government partner. Then, in late-March, completion of the deal was announced.

In addition, I believe that Eni's acquisition of Chevron's remaining upstream assets in Indonesia was completed in September 2023, which I hadn't previously flagged as complete.

And, in a deal involving assets in the region, we saw Eni's acquisition of Neptune complete at the end of January 2024.

Previously announced deals - Yet-to-complete

In addition to the TotalEnergies deal from this quarter, there is a growing list of deals previously announced that are yet-to-complete. The first dating from December 2022:

• From December 2022, it is BitExco's acquisition of MedcoEnergi's stake in Block 12W in Vietnam. I hear that MedcoEnergi are being cautious to ensure full compliance but expect the deal to close.
• Then from Q1 of 2023, is MTI Energy's?acquisition of Chevron's 41.1% stake in the Yadana asset in Myanmar. Very little detail has been provided but November 2023 saw a Reuters report highlighting that this deal had yet-to-complete, with no timeline for completion given.
• The next deal came in mid-August 2023, with Harbour Energy announcing that they have signed an SPA with Big Energy for the latter to acquire Harbour's stake in Block 12W in Vietnam. My full analysis of the deal can be found here: https://www.dhirubhai.net/pulse/vietnam-ma-big-energy-bitexco-agree-acquire-harbour-robert-chambers/?trackingId=5kdexUN0SdGZi51lmCYxaA%3D%3D. Completion is going slowly but should happen.
• The next deal came in early September 2023 and saw PTTEP acquire TotalEnergies last remaining upstream interest in Thailand through the acquisition of TotalEnergies 33.33% stake in block G12/48 (Bongkot South). At the time, they said completion was expected by the end of 2023. However, in their March 2024 investor presentation, they stated the completion of the SPA was still in progress.
• The next deal came mid-November 2023 and involved a formal farm-in agreement being signed between Sacgasco and Philippines National Oil Company PNOC for the latter to farm-into Service contract 6B that contains the Cadlao field. There is also a related sale of Sacgasco subsidiary Nido Petroleum to Blue Sky. I believe the terms are now finalised and some payments have been made, but formal DOE approval is still required for completion.
• The third deal came in mid-November and saw Criterium Energy announce that they have signed an LOI to divest their 45% stake in the Bulu PSC in Indonesia that contains the Lengo field. The buyer still has not been announced. Completion was expected in Q1 2024, but I am yet to see an announcement.

The table below summarises the deals in the region that have been announced but are yet-to-close.

Assets on the market

I have been keeping track of the assets on the market, with these summarised in the table below:

The main changes from Q4 are:

• I have removed the OMV 50% stake in SapuraOMV following the deal announced for TotalEnergies to acquire this stake. However, Sapura Energy's 50% stake in SapuraOMV remains.
• I have removed Pertamina's stake in Rokan (although I'm sure they would still like a partner) and have added their ONWJ and OSES assets, in which they are reportedly marketing stakes.
• I have added Repsol's remaining Indonesia assets, which they may be interested in divesting given that Indonesia was not a part of Repsol's core growth plans in their recent strategic plan.
• I have added MedcoEnergi's last remaining Thailand asset: Block B08/38 (Bualuang), which is understood to be available. Valeura would be the most obvious potential buyer.

More details of the landscape in Southeast Asia can be a found in my individual country analyses.

Questions and feedback

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