Lukoil Sangomar bid will not cause sanctions: Woodside
Russian private-sector upstream firm Lukoil's A$220mn ($171mn) takeover offer for Australian independent Far will not trigger US sanctions on the 100,000 b/d Sangomar oil field offshore Senegal, project operator Australian independent Woodside Petroleum said.
Lukoil this week made its second attempt to buy into Sangomar through a bid for Far, which owns 13.67pc of the project.
The bid does not prompt pre-emptive rights in the Sangomar project as the transaction is for Far's publicly traded shares and not directly for the company's stake in Sangomar, Woodside chief executive Peter Coleman said.
"The Lukoil offer will not trigger the US sanctions as it is below the 33pc threshold for the sanctions to become applicable to the project," Coleman said.
The move by Lukoil prompted Far to defer its shareholder meeting, scheduled for today, which was to vote on a pre-emptive offer from Woodside. This may cause complications for Woodside, which wants to reduce its stake in Sangomar to 40-50pc this year.
Woodside bought a 40pc stake in Sangomar from UK independent Cairn Energy, using its pre-emptive rights to buy Cairn's stake after the UK firm had agreed to sell its interest to Lukoil. The sale to Lukoil would have placed Sangomar under Washington's sanctions radar.
Any successful purchase of Far by Lukoil would entitle the Russian firm to the same pre-emptive rights as the other project partners, including the right to buy some of Woodside's proposed sale of its stake. Woodside owns 68.33pc of Sangomar.
"Lukoil has expressed an interest in buying into Sangomar before and they know that having a minority stake does not give them any influence over the development and operation of the project, whereas had they bought the Cairn stake they would have had a much larger say in the project," Coleman said.
Senegal's state-controlled energy firm Petrosen raised its stake in Sangomar last year to 18pc from 10pc, exercising its right to increase its share after the project was sanctioned in January 2020.
The US sanctions on Russia stem from Moscow's invasion of the Ukraine in 2014.
Related news posts
Biden abandons bid for re-election: Update
Biden abandons bid for re-election: Update
Updates with reaction Washington, 21 July (Argus) — President Joe Biden has dropped his bid for a second term and is endorsing vice president Kamala Harris to serve as his party's presidential nominee, bowing to pressure from top Democrats who no longer saw a viable path for him to defeat former president Donald Trump in the November election. Biden committed to serve out the remainder of his term, which ends on 20 January 2025. Biden's abrupt withdrawal from the presidential race will leave it up to Democratic delegates to decide who will become their nominee by no later than the Democratic National Convention on 19-22 August. "While it has been my intention to seek re-election, I believe it is in the best interest of my party and the country for me to stand down and to focus solely on fulfilling my duties as president for the remainder of my term," Biden wrote in a letter posted on the social media site X. In calling for Democrats to rally around Harris as the nominee, Biden said he was giving his "full support and endorsement" of Harris and urged Democrats to "come together and beat Trump". Other top voices in the Democratic Party have called for a "mini-primary" to allow a new candidate to emerge, but doing so could run the risk of a protracted and politically risky intraparty fight. Trump, who has spent years attacking Biden's mental competency and age, said in a post today on Truth Social that Biden is not "fit to run for President" and had never been capable to lead the country. Other Republican leaders urged Biden to resign from the White House, which would lead to Harris being sworn in as president. "If Joe Biden is not fit to run for president, he is not fit to serve as president," US House of Representatives speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) said in a post on X. "He must resign the office immediately." House minority leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-New York) called Biden "one of the most accomplished and consequential leaders in American history". Jeffries did not explicitly endorse Harris. The Democratic revolt against Biden staying in the race followed the first presidential debate last month, when Biden often appeared feeble and confused and struggled to clearly articulate his policy positions. Biden called the debate "a stupid mistake" and blamed it on his busy travel and work schedule. But efforts by Biden and his campaign to reach out to Democratic lawmakers and donors have failed to assuage their concerns. Trump has also made polling gains in must-win battleground states such as Pennsylvania and Michigan, and even threatened to be competitive in typically Democratic strongholds such as New Jersey. Biden is the first sitting US president since Lyndon Johnson in 1968 to prematurely end his re-election campaign. Biden said he would speak "in more detail" later this week about his decision. The Trump campaign had already started preparing for the possibility that Biden would drop out of the race after the presidential debate last month. Last week, a senior adviser for the Trump campaign declined to set a date for the vice presidential debate, saying it would be "unfair" to "whoever Kamala Harris picks as her running mate", in a taunting reference to the uncertainty of Biden's candidacy. By Chris Knight and Haik Gugarats Send comments and request more information at feedback@argusmedia.com Copyright © 2024. Argus Media group . All rights reserved.
Israel strikes Yemen’s Houthi-held Red Sea port city
Israel strikes Yemen’s Houthi-held Red Sea port city
Dubai, 21 July (Argus) — Israel's military on Saturday struck Houthi-controlled Red Sea port of Hodeidah in Yemen, in retaliation for a drone attack by the Iran-backed militant group on Tel Aviv a day earlier, further stoking heightened geopolitical tensions in a key shipping lane for the global economy. Israel's airstrikes targeted "the power station that supplies the coastal city of Hodeidah" and also "the Hodeidah port and fuel tanks," Houthi spokesperson Yahya Saree said. The Houthi-run Al Masirah TV broadcast live footage of flames and smoke raging in the port's oil storage facilities that it said were hit. Saree vowed an "inevitable" and "huge" retaliation to Israel's assault. Saree also claimed on Sunday that the group fired ballistic missiles targeting Eilat in southern Israel. Israel's Defence Forces (IDF) said on Sunday it intercepted a "surface-to-surface missile that approached Israeli territory from Yemen." The IDF on 20 July officially claimed the attack on Houthi-controlled Yemeni territory. "After 9 months of continuous aerial attacks by the Houthis in Yemen toward Israel, IAF [Israeli air force] fighter jets conducted an extensive operational strike over 1,800km away against Houthi terrorist military targets in the area of Al Hudaydah Port in Yemen," the IDF said. "This port serves as an entryway for Iranian weapons for the Houthi terrorist regime," the IDF said, and Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu made similar remarks in a televised speech. Houthi spokesperson and chairman of Al Masirah media network Mohammed Abdulsalam in a statement on social media platform X said that the Israeli attack targeted "civilian facilities." He also vowed that the attacks will only "increase the determination of the Houthis to ramp up their support for Gaza." Yemen's crude production collapsed soon after the start of the country's civil war, from around 170,000 b/d in 2011-13. The Houthi group uses Hodeidah's port to import some needed fuel oil shipments, with data from analytics firm Kpler suggesting the port received two shipments totalling 156,000 bls between June and July. Hodeidah is also an entry port for humanitarian fuel and food deliveries under the UN auspices, which are then distributed both to the internationally-recognized government of Yemen and to the Houthi authorities. Video footage posted on social media appear to show long queues in front of gas stations in Houthi-controlled areas, in anticipation of a possible fuel shortage closing in. Yemen's internationally recognized and Saudi-backed governing body condemned Israel's attack in a statement. It also renewed its warning to "the terrorist Houthi militias against continuing to tie Yemenis' fate in service of the Iranian regime's interests and its expansionist project in the region." Saudi Arabia's defense ministry on Sunday denied any relation or involvement in the targeting of Hodeidah, adding that the country will not allow any entity to violate its airspace. Yemen's Houthis on 19 July claimed responsibility for a drone attack in central Tel Aviv in Israel that claimed the life of one citizen and injured eight, according to the IDF. It marked a significant escalation that risked a regional spillover of the 10-month conflict between Israel and Palestinian group Hamas, especially with Israel highlighting the Iranian origin of the UAV. Israel and Iran avoided a full-blown war in April after a significant escalation led to exchanging direct aerial strikes against each other's territory. But the IDF attack opens yet another area of confrontation for Israel in the region in the aftermath of the 10-month conflict between between Israel and Palestinian group Hamas. Iran-backed Houthis began attacking commercial ships in and around the Red Sea six weeks after the Israel-Hamas war broke out in October last year in what they claim is an act of solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza. Houthis are part of Tehran's so-called 'Axis of Resistance,' a regional proxy network that includes the Gaza-based Hamas militant group, Lebanon's Hezbollah and Iraqi Shia militias. By Bachar Halabi Send comments and request more information at feedback@argusmedia.com Copyright © 2024. Argus Media group . All rights reserved.
Biden abandons bid for re-election
Biden abandons bid for re-election
Washington, 21 July (Argus) — President Joe Biden has dropped his bid for a second term and is endorsing vice president Kamala Harris to serve as his party's presidential nominee, bowing to pressure from top Democrats who no longer saw a viable path for him to defeat former president Donald Trump in the November election. Biden committed to serve out the remainder of his term, which ends on 20 January 2025. Biden's abrupt withdrawal from the presidential race will leave it up to Democratic delegates to decide who will become their nominee by no later than the Democratic National Convention on 19-22 August. "While it has been my intention to seek re-election, I believe it is in the best interest of my party and the country for me to stand down and to focus solely on fulfilling my duties as president for the remainder of my term," Biden wrote in a letter posted on the social media site X. In calling for Democrats to rally around Harris as the nominee, Biden said he was giving his "full support and endorsement" of Harris and urged Democrats to "come together and beat Trump". Other top voices in the Democratic Party have called for a "mini-primary" to allow a new candidate to emerge, but doing so could run the risk of a protracted and politically risky intraparty fight. The Democratic revolt against Biden staying in the race followed the first presidential debate last month, when Biden often appeared feeble and confused and struggled to clearly articulate his policy positions. Biden called the debate "a stupid mistake" and blamed it on his busy travel and work schedule. But efforts by Biden and his campaign to reach out to Democratic lawmakers and donors have failed to assuage their concerns. Trump has also made polling gains in must-win battleground states such as Pennsylvania and Michigan, and even threatened to be competitive in typically Democratic strongholds such as New Jersey. Biden is the first sitting US president since Lyndon Johnson in 1968 to prematurely end his re-election campaign. Biden said he would speak "in more detail" later this week about his decision. The Trump campaign had already started preparing for the possibility that Biden would drop out of the race after the presidential debate last month. Last week, a senior adviser for the Trump campaign declined to set a date for the vice presidential debate, saying it would be "unfair" to "whoever Kamala Harris picks as her running mate", in a taunting reference to the uncertainty of Biden's candidacy. By Chris Knight and Haik Gugarats Send comments and request more information at feedback@argusmedia.com Copyright © 2024. Argus Media group . All rights reserved.
ExxonMobil Joliet refinery may be limited for 3 weeks
ExxonMobil Joliet refinery may be limited for 3 weeks
Houston, 19 July (Argus) — It could take up to three weeks for ExxonMobil's 252,000 b/d Joliet refinery in Channahon, Illinois, to resume normal operations after severe weather caused a facility-wide shutdown Monday . The company has limited its unbranded fuel supply in the region and placed customers on allocation, according to buyers. Restoring power and ramping-up the refinery to full operations could take up to three weeks, lasting well into August. ExxonMobil confirmed this afternoon that power has not been restored to the plant and previously declined to comment on a time line for a return to normal operations as it assesses damage at the plant. Channahon's emergency management director told Argus that Monday's tornado skirted the refinery and it faced no direct damage. US Interstate 55 which borders Exxon's refinery was closed due to downed power lines, but these have since been cleared and the road re-opened. By Nathan Risser Send comments and request more information at feedback@argusmedia.com Copyright © 2024. Argus Media group . All rights reserved.
Business intelligence reports
Get concise, trustworthy and unbiased analysis of the latest trends and developments in oil and energy markets. These reports are specially created for decision makers who don’t have time to track markets day-by-day, minute-by-minute.
Learn more