KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia’s first special purpose acquisition company (SPAC), Hibiscus Petroleum Bhd, has been short-listed for the second round of bidding for Newfield Exploration Co’s Malaysian and Chinese oil and gas fields valued at about US$1.2bil (RM4bil).
“It was only a handful of companies that made it to the second round from the 65 companies initially expressed interest and we are one of them,” said Hibiscus Managing Director Kenneth Pereira.
Newfield, the fourth-largest oil producer in Malaysia, has an interest in about 3.3 million net acres at offshore Malaysia and about 290,000 net acres at offshore China but intends to sell these assets to focus on its North American operations.
The Malaysian fields, owned through Newfield Peninsula Malaysia Inc and Newfield Sarawak Malaysia Inc, were reported to have accounted for 39 percent of Newfield’s revenues in 2012, while the China fields contributed 3.3 percent.
Pereira said the first round of evaluation ended in July and the second round is expected to be concluded by end of next month.
“The bidding process is extremely competitive. There are some very big players in there (second round) but we are working very hard,” he told reporters after the company’s AGM yesterday.
Other companies believed to have tabled bids include SapuraKencana Petroleum Bhd, Exxon Mobil Corp and Royal Dutch Shell plc.
Meanwhile, Pereira said Hibiscus expects to report a profit by end of next year provided its exploration activity at the Oman Block 50 concession yields a viable discovery.
Pereira said the drilling works at the concession will commence 10 weeks from now.
“If the wells yield a successful discovery, production is expected to begin by the first-half of next year through utilisation of an early production system,” he said.
He added that Hibiscus and its jointly-controlled entity Lime Petroleum plc had estimated that the Oman wells may produce about 160 million barrels.
Pereira said the company is confident of finding the resources given the in-depth technical evaluation and verification using the proprietary Rex Virtual Drilling technology, which Lime has exclusive rights to in 15 countries in the Middle East.
“The Rex technology has really boosted our confidence. If we are successful, then many major players in the explorations business would seek our technology. There is no such technology in the market yet.
“Increase in clients for Rex technologies also mean extra income to Hibiscus,” he said.
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