Range Proposes Tie-up with International Petroleum

Range Resources is proposing a tie-up with International Petroleum that will see the combined group focused on the expansion and development of projects in Russia, Trinidad and onshore Africa. Range said Thursday that a share-swap deal between the companies would see International Petroleum taken over for approximately $108 million.

Range already holds assets in the Republic of Georgia, Texas, Trinidad, Colombia and Guatemala, while International Petroleum has assets in Russia, Kazakhstan and Niger. The merged entity would hold estimates proved (1P) reserves of 23.6 million barrels, with proved, probable and possible (3P) reserves amounting to 264 million barrels.

The combined production for the enlarged group would be approximately 1,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day, based on current output.

Key assets for the new business will include International Petroleum's interests in five projects in Russia. During the period from August 2012 to December 2012, the firm produced 25,000 barrels of oil from well number 52 at its 100-percent owned Zapadno-Novomolodezhny Project at an average flow rate of 197 barrels of ol per day.

The new business will see Chris Hopkinson appointed as managing director. Hopkinson, the current CEO of International Petroleum, has more than 23 years' experience in the oil and gas industry, including management positions with BG Group, TNK-BP, Yukos, Imperial Energy Corporation and Lukoil.

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Range Proposes Tie-up with International Petroleum

Range Resources is proposing a tie-up with International Petroleum that will see the combined group focused on the expansion and development of projects in Russia, Trinidad and onshore Africa. Range said Thursday that a share-swap deal between the companies would see International Petroleum taken over for approximately $108 million.

Range already holds assets in the Republic of Georgia, Texas, Trinidad, Colombia and Guatemala, while International Petroleum has assets in Russia, Kazakhstan and Niger. The merged entity would hold estimates proved (1P) reserves of 23.6 million barrels, with proved, probable and possible (3P) reserves amounting to 264 million barrels.

The combined production for the enlarged group would be approximately 1,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day, based on current output.

Key assets for the new business will include International Petroleum's interests in five projects in Russia. During the period from August 2012 to December 2012, the firm produced 25,000 barrels of oil from well number 52 at its 100-percent owned Zapadno-Novomolodezhny Project at an average flow rate of 197 barrels of ol per day.

The new business will see Chris Hopkinson appointed as managing director. Hopkinson, the current CEO of International Petroleum, has more than 23 years' experience in the oil and gas industry, including management positions with BG Group, TNK-BP, Yukos, Imperial Energy Corporation and Lukoil.

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Nexen-CNOOC Tie-Up Gets Green Light From US Government

Nexen Inc. said early Tuesday that the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. has approved CNOOC Ltd.'s $15.1 billion acquisition of Nexen, clearing the last significant hurdle in the deal--China's biggest overseas acquisition to date.

The Canadian government approved the deal in December, after an extensive review of its own foreign investment rules and its policy toward state-owned enterprises in particular. Britain also green lighted the deal. U.S. and British authorities needed to sign off because Nexen controlled significant assets in the Gulf of Mexico and the North Sea.

Calgary, Alberta-based Nexen said it expects CNOOC to close the acquisition the week of Feb. 25.

The U.S. approval came after the companies agreed to resubmit their application in front of the committee, a multi-agency group in Washington that vets significant foreign investment in the U.S. The approval marks a significant milestone for CNOOC, which had pushed hard into the U.S. energy patch in the middle of the last decade, bidding for Unocal Corp.

That deal ultimately died amid political opposition in the U.S., and Chevron Corp. eventually bought Unocal.

CNOOC started up a new push into North America in recent years, but focused on Canadian assets. In 2011, it agreed to buy bankrupt Canadian producer OPTI Canada Inc., a rare move by a Chinese state owned entity to go after 100% of a North American energy company. Then last year, it went a step further, offering to buy the much larger and much more financially healthy Nexen, an oil-sands operator with petroleum assets around the world, including in the strategic--and sometimes politically sensitive--Gulf of Mexico.

Copyright (c) 2012 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.

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