Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway bought 40.1MM shares of ExxonMobil for $3.45bln, and now holds about 0.9% of the company’s stock.
UK’s BG has sold additional interests in its Queensland Curtis LNG project in Australia to China National Offshore Oil Corp. for $1.93 billion, and to supply the state-controlled Chinese firm with an additional 5 million tons per year of LNG from the plant. CNOOC’s share of the project’s first train will rise to 50% from 10%, its stake in BG upstream assets in the Surat Basin will rise to 25% from 5%, and the company is buying 25% of other BG upstream properties in the Surat and Bowen Basins, as well as the option to take a 25% interest in potential project expansions.
CNOOC has also signed a deal with the government of British Columbia to assess potential development of an LNG export plant at Grassy Point on Canada’s western coast. The project – Aurora LNG – would be developed by a CNOOC joint venture with Japan’s Inpex and JGC.
Calgary-based Talisman Energy has agreed to sell 75% of its Montney Shale acreage in British Columbia, amounting to about 127,000 net acres, to Progress Energy (which was acquired by Malaysia’s Petronas last year) for C$1.5bln in cash. The properties were producing 65 million cubic feet per day as of October 1, 2013, and will come with an estimated C$800 million in remaining third-party carry capital at year-end. Talisman aims to sell $2-3bln in assets.
Google and private equity firm KKR are investing $400 million, including equity and debt financing, in six solar power plants being built by a subsidiary of Japan’s Sharp Corp. The projects have a combined capacity of 106 megawatts and should begin operating by January.
Clean Energy Fuels, a supplier of LNG as transportation fuel, announced a multi-year bulk fueling agreement to supply LNG to two private UPS fueling stations located in Texas, and a separate agreement, under which Clean Energy will open three additional stations located in Texas, to fuel the UPS fleet.
Private equity firms ACON Investments and TPG have agreed to sell all of their interests in Northern Tier Energy to Western Refining for $775MM, plus payouts for common units purchased in the third quarter of 2013. The deal gives Western Refining “refining capacity with direct access to cheap crude oil”, according to Reuters.
Private equity firm the Carlyle Group is planning to raise $7bln for energy funds in the next two years – $4bln for a North American Energy Fund, $1.5bln for North American Power and $1.5bln for international energy.
Petrobras has agreed to sell its Peruvian subsidiary to China National Petroleum Corp. for $2.6bln. Among assets included in the deal are a 100% stake in mature field Block X that produced 16,000 barrels per day of oil equivalent last year, a 46.16% stake in natural gas and condensate field Block 57, which has yet to begin operating, and Block 58, an exploration block where natural gas and condensate have been discovered.
Allete Clean Energy has agreed to buy wind farms in Minnesota, Iowa and Oregon with combined output of 231 MW from AES in early 2014 for $27MM, and has also signed an option agreement to buy a fourth wind farm in Pennsylvania in mid-2015.
UK’s Ophir Energy has agreed to sell a 20% interest in Tanzanian offshore blocks 1, 3 and 4 to Pavilion Energy, which is owned by Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund Temasek, for $1.3 bln. The blocks, which hold natural gas, may be used to supply an LNG export project that will cost an estimated $10bln.
