MOSCOW (MRC) -- State-owned Qatar Petroleum (QP) said it signed an agreement with France's TotalEnergies to acquire an interest in three South African offshore exploration blocks as the Gulf state seeks to expand its international footprint, reported S&P Global.
Under the terms of the agreement that are subject to approval by the South African government, QP will own 25% of the South Outeniqua block, 30% of the DWOB block, and 29.17% of the OBD block, the company said in a July 4 statement.
"These acquisitions represent an excellent addition to our South African regional upstream portfolio, and build upon the positive progress following the recent drilling success in the 11B/12B block," Saad al-Kaabi, Qatar's minister of state for energy affairs, and QP CEO, said in the statement.
QP, the world's biggest LNG producer, has moved in the past few years to expand its overseas footprint and recently stepped up its activity to grow a gas-focused worldwide upstream portfolio.
It has boosted its international presence through a number of overseas upstream and downstream deals in countries including Oman, Mexico, Mozambique, Angola, Kenya, Guyana, the US, Brazil, Ivory Coast, Mozambique, Kenya and Morocco.
As MRC infromed previously, in June 2021, TotalEnergies and Novatek have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to jointly work on sustainable reductions of the CO emission resulting from the production of liquefied natural gas (LNG) including with the use of renewable power, to develop large-scale carbon capture and storage solutions (CCS) and to explore new opportunities for developing decarbonized hydrogen and ammonia.
We remind that in November 2019, Total disclosed that itis evaluating construction of a new gas cracker at its Deasan, South Korea, joint venture (JV) with Hanwha Chemical.
Ethylene and propylene are the main feedstocks for the production of polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP), respectively.
According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 744,130 tonnes in the first four month of 2021, up by 4% year on year. Shipments of all PE grades increased. At the same time, PP deliveries to the Russian market were 523,900 tonnes in January-April 2021, up by 55% year on year. Supply of homopolymer PP and PP block copolymers increased, whereas shipments of PP random copolymers decreased.
TotalEnergies is a 19.4% shareholder in Novatek and holds a 20% stake in Yamal LNG, a project that started up in December 2017 and produced more than 18.8 million tons of LNG in 2020. The company also holds a 10% stake in Arctic LNG 2, a project currently under construction and on track to deliver its first LNG cargo in 2023.
MRC