noble plans china oil-field stake sale

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/noble-plans-china-oil-field-stake-sale-2014-02-21


HONG KONG—Noble Energy NBL +0.78% Inc. has hired merger-advisory firm Lazard LAZ -0.71% Ltd. to sell its majority stake in an oil field it owns with Sinopec just off northeastern China, people familiar with the matter said, the latest in a string of asset sales in the region.

One person familiar with the matter said the U.S. oil-and-gas producer could sell the stake for between $200 million and $300 million.

Noble Energy holds a 57% stake in the Chengdaoxi field, which began commercial operations in 2003 and currently produces about 4,000 barrels a day of crude oil. State-controlled China Petroleum & Chemical Corp., known as Sinopec, holds the remaining stake in the field, which is classified as an onshore project because it is in waters less than five meters deep.

Roc Oil Co., a medium-size Australian oil-and-gas producer, is one prospective bidder for Noble's stake, people familiar with the matter said. Roc has experience exploring and developing oil fields of similar size in Bohai Bay. In 2006, it bought a minority stake in the Zhaodong block in Bohai Bay from U.S.-based Apache APA +0.34% Corp. and continues to explore and develop assets in the region. Roc said its share of output from its fields in Bohai Bay was about 4,000 barrels a day in the fourth quarter of 2013.

Roc isn't the only bidder for Noble's stake, which has attracted interest from a wide field that includes other medium-size energy companies, people familiar with the matter said.

Noble said earlier this month in a statement that its production-sharing contract in China would expire in 2018 and that it was negotiating to sell its Chinese assets. Noble is focused on horizontal-drilling operations in the U.S., as well on offshore projects in the Gulf of Mexico, the Mediterranean and West Africa.