"Japan Is Aggressively Buying Up Oil And Gas Around The World"
From OilPrice:
This coming year could be a surprisingly exciting time for oil and gas developers.
Yes,
energy prices are depressed right now. But not everyone sees that as a
negative. In fact, private equity funds are still raising record amounts of capital
for energy investments — with managers and investors alike seeing the
current downturn as a prime time to pick up good assets for cheap.
Most
of that PE money is earmarked for U.S. shale. But this week’s
announcements from Indonesia state oil firm Pertamina, and Japanese
government arm Jogmec, show that the spending spree may now be extending
to global oil and gas assets.
Pertamina had $700 million this year for
acquisitions — and will likely have billions for the coming year. Jogmec
is even more flush with cash — having arranged financial backing
totaling $5.2 billion yearly for oil and gas M&A.
That’s a lot of cash now hunting for projects. So the question is — where in the world might these big players be looking?
Obviously,
both firms are headquartered in Asia. Suggesting that this region would
be a logical place to look for buyouts. But recent events show the
focus here is likely to extend well beyond just Asian projects.
Pertamina, for example, was decidedly Africa-minded this past year.
Buying into projects in Gabon and Mozambique.
Jogmec also favored
Africa — providing financial support for Japanese firms working in
onshore Kenya. And stepping out even further by getting into frontier
exploration in Greenland.
In fact, as the map below shows, Jogmec
has a worldwide scope for oil and gas projects. Covering six continents
where the company has supported projects through equity capital
participation or financial guarantees.
That suggests Jogmec’s billions could theoretically be deployed
almost anywhere in the world. Although a closer look at the company’s
recent activities provides some deeper clues on where exactly it might
be considering.
A little-known fact about Jogmec is that it also
provides government-to-government support for petroleum activity.
Including helping foreign governments conduct geophysical surveys over
prospective areas in the onshore and offshore....MORE
