Asia/Pacific News
Brightoil Bid for Newfield Upstream Assets Could Run to $800M
Brightoil Petroleum Holdings Ltd. (Brightoil) says it plans to bid for the assets of Newfield Exploration Co. (Newfield)'s offshore business in a deal which could be worth up to $800 million, Bloomberg reports.
The Hong Kong-based bunker trader recently acquired similar upstream operations from Anadarko Petroleum Corp. for $1.05 billion August.
The Newfield assets would further add to Brightoil's Bohai Bay holdings and give it a stake in an additional block expected to begin producing at the end of November.
The move comes as Brightoil continues to transform its business by becoming an owner of oil and gas infrastructure under plans that CEO Bruce Yung recently said would see the company invest $1 billion a year in China over the next three to four years.
"It's far from the valuation stage," said Frances Leung, Brightoil's investor relations manager.
But an analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. said that the Newfield assets up for sale are likely to be worth $720 million based of reserves of 25 million barrels of oil equivalent and that a 10 percent premium was common in upstream acquisitions.
Earlier this year, Brightoil posted a $74.7 million profit for the year ended June 30, 2014 after a loss making 2012-2013.
