PT Pertamina to acquire Malaysian assets for $2 billion

Sept. 30, 2014
PT Pertamina Malaysia Eksplorasi Produksi has agreed to acquire 30% of the Malaysian oil and gas assets belonging to Murphy Sabah Oil Co. Ltd. and Murphy Sarawak Oil, both wholly owned subsidiaries of Murphy Oil Corp., for $2 billion in cash.

PT Pertamina Malaysia Eksplorasi Produksi has agreed to acquire 30% of the Malaysian oil and gas assets belonging to Murphy Sabah Oil Co. Ltd. and Murphy Sarawak Oil, both wholly owned subsidiaries of Murphy Oil Corp., for $2 billion in cash.

The two companies will work jointly in a long-term partnership in which Murphy will remain operator. Murphy says it will continue to execute its development plans and expand through future exploration in both deepwater and shallow-water Malaysia.

Roger W. Jenkins, Murphy president and chief executive officer, commented, “We are excited to strengthen our partnership with Pertamina and look forward to working with them and our other partners in Malaysia.

“We will continue to evaluate all aspects of our portfolio,” Jenkins added. “This transaction allows us to redeploy the proceeds through an individual or combination of strategic and financial initiatives such as increased drilling capital in the Eagle Ford shale, acquisition opportunities, debt reduction and share repurchases.”

The deal, subject to approval from Malaysia’s state owned Petronas, is effective Jan. 1. The first and second phases are expected to close in fourth-quarter 2014 and first-quarter 2015, respectively.