Petronas, Hess give up stakes in Premier Oil in exchange of Indonesia, Myanmar assets

UK based oil and gas company Premier Oil PLC announced on Monday that it would transformed itself into a fully independent company after its two top shareholders, Amerada Hess and Petronas agreed to give up their shares in Premier Oil in return for transfer of interests in Yetagun project in Myanmar and West Natuna Sea Block A in Indonesia.

Both Amerada Hess and Petronas have 25 percent interest each in Premier Oil.

According to Premier?s announcement, it would transfer its whole interest in Yetagun and a 15 per cent interest in Natuna Sea Block A to Petronas, while Amerada Hess would receive 23 percent interest in Natuna Sea Block A.

Premier Oil also said Petronas and other partners in the Yetagun project would assume and repay at completion Premier's Yetagun project debt of US$152 million and make a cash payment to Premier of US$207 million, while Amerada Hess will make a cash payment to Premier of US$17 million.

The deal, said Premier, valued the Yetagun interest at US$400 million, a value for the 15 per cent interest in Natuna of US$107 million and a value for the 23 per cent interest in Natuna of US$163 million.

Premier Oil is the operator of Natuna Sea Block A production sharing contract and has 66.7 percent working interest in the block. The block is producing natural gas which is piped to Singapore and is in negotiation to pipe gas to Malaysia.

After the restructuring Natuna Block A will continue to be operated by Premier with ownership shared among four co-venturers: Premier (28.7 percent), Kufpec (33.3 percent), Amerada Hess (23 percent) and Petronas (15 percent).(alex/robert)