Murphy sells 30% of Malaysian assets to Pertamina

By Romel S. Gurky

US oil and gas firm Murphy Oil Corporation announced Tuesday that its wholly owned subsidiaries, Murphy Sabah Oil Co., Ltd. and Murphy Sarawak Oil Co., Ltd. have entered into an agreement with PT Pertamina Malaysia Eksplorasi Produksi to sell 30 percent of Murphy's Malaysian oil and gas assets for an aggregate sales price of US$2.0 billion in an all cash transaction, subject to customary closing costs and adjustments for the period from effective date to closing.

Murphy said in a statement that closing of the transaction would to take place in two phases. The first phase is expected to be completed in the fourth quarter of 2014 and the second phase is expected to be completed by the first quarter of 2015. The transaction is subject to, among other things, the approval of Malaysia?s state-owned Petroliam Nasional Berhad (Petronas).

?Murphy looks forward to establishing a long-term partnership with Pertamina. Murphy will remain operator and continue to execute its development plans as well as grow through future exploration in both deep-water and shallow-water Malaysia,? the statement said.

Roger W. Jenkins, President and Chief Executive Officer, commented, "This transaction marks the value of the high-margin, long-term assets in our Malaysian business. 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. This transaction allows us to re-deploy 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," Jenkins added.

Editing by Reiner Simanjuntak