In a letter to the Capital Market and Financial Institution Supervisory Agency (Bapepam-LK), Aban financial director C.P. Gopalkrisman confirmed that his company has pulled out of talks to acquire PT Medco Internasional Tbk.’s 51.57 percent stake, PT Asian Opportunities’ 15.92 percent stake and CLSA Ltd’s 15.92 percent stake in Apexindo.
In the middle oflast year, Medco, the biggest publicly traded oil company in
The company confirmed that it had received an offer from Aban some time last year, and then announced in August that it had refused the offer.
“As a public company, we are used to receiving offers from investors, but Medco is not the one who has been active in selling Apexindo,” Medco corporate secretary Andy Karamoy told The Jakarta Post Wednesday.
Despite the failure of the negotiations, Medco went ahead with its plan to expand its upstream oil and gas operations by buying part of ConocoPhillips’s interest in the Block A gas field in the country northermost province, Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam, this month.
With this purchase, Medco and its partner Premier Oil Plc. now each have a half share of ConocoPhillips’ 50 percent stake in the gas block.
The Jakarta-based Medco will pay US$36 million for the 25 percent interest in the gas block.
Block A is approximately 45 kilometers east of the Arun field, and its operated by Exxon, which supplies gas to the Arun liquefied natural gas plant in Aceh.
The Indonesia government is keen to have the field pumping gas as soon as possible to start supplying two fertilizer plants in Aceh that have had to halt its production due to a lack of gas.
Medco Japan Petroleum Exploration Co. and Premier Oil have equal shares of the remaining 50 percent they acquired from Exxon Mobil Corp. in April last year, Bloomberg reports.
With the additional stake it bought from ConocoPhillips, Medco now has a total interest in Block A of 41.67 percent, while Premier Oil has a 41.66 percent and Japan Petroleum a 16.67 percent stake. Block A covers some 3,910 square kilometers.
