Total Was Not Able to Bid On The Anadarko Fields

Total has not been allowed to acquire Anadarko’s assets from Algeria. The Minister of Energy from Algeria mentioned to the media on Sunday May 26 quoted by Reuters.

The value of US$8.8 billion for the acquisition was made by Total and Occidental petroleum during the bidding war with Chevron over the Anadarko field. The deal was contingent on Oxy winning that war which happened earlier this May.

Algeria’s government was not consulted on the matter and is now ready to exercise its pre-emption right, per Arkab.

“Our ministry has contacted Anadarko to get explanations on this information, but so far we got no answer,” he said. “It means there is no contract between Total and Anadarko …We have good relations with Anadarko, and we will do the utmost to preserve Algeria’s interests, including using our pre-emption right to block the sale.”

Total has a presence in Algeria, last year they signed a series of new agreements with Algeria’s Sonatrach for the development of new fields. However, the relationship between France and Algeria have not been in good terms after the independence of Alegria in the 1950s.

The acquisition of the Anadarko fields for Total will open their portfolio in Algeria, which is a total of 260,00 bpd would be a perfect fit with its priorities, CEO Patrick Pouyanne stated earlier in May.

“What we tell to investors is we play to our strengths. What are the strengths of Total? It is the Middle East, Africa, North Sea, Deep Water. … It is just fitting exactly and perfectly with what we announced,” Pouyanne said commenting on the deal with Occidental.

“In fact,…we have been looking at these assets more than a year. We have had some discussions before with Anadarko. It was not a lot of creativity to fix that these assets are not very well fitting for upstream and that there was a potential match between Oxy and Total.”

Algeria currently is producing a million barrels daily.