Marathon acquires West Africa interests

Petroleum News Alaska Staff

Marathon Oil Co. said Nov. 2 that it has signed a purchase and sale agreement with CMS Energy to acquire all of its upstream and downstream interests in Equatorial Guinea, West Africa, for $993 million.

Clarence Cazalot, president of Marathon, said the acquisition will establish a new core business area for Marathon and said the acquisition will also be a step in growing the company's “integrated gas business where the application of gas commercialization technologies will deliver added-value products for local, U.S. and European markets.

“I see Marathon becoming a significant regional player in West Africa as we build on our expertise across the energy value chain and the relationships we have already established in this part of the world.”

Marathon will acquire a 52.4 interest in, and operatorship of, the offshore Alba Block, which contains the producing Alba gas field as well as undeveloped oil and gas discoveries and several exploration prospects. Also acquired in the deal are interests in a condensate separation facility, a methanol production plant and a liquefied petroleum gas processing plant.

The Alba field, which began producing in 1991, is estimated to contain a producible resource of 5 trillion cubic feet of dry gas and 300 million barrels of condensate.

The transaction is expected to close in early January.