It doesn't take long to realize that the structure of
deals within the world of energy is changing at lightspeed.
Where once, most of the world's oil was developed by private
companies headquartered in the U.S. or Europe, there now are
all manner of public-private or public-public partnerships
taking shape.
For instance, until a couple of years ago, the development
work in Venezuela's Orinoco River basin was performed by a
half-dozen of the world's big integrated oil companies,
including
ExxonMobil (NYSE: XOM),
ConocoPhillips (NYSE: COP),
Chevron (NYSE: CVX), and France's
Total (NYSE: TOT). But then President Hugo
Chavez decided to
nationalize everythingin sight, stripping the companies
of their operating positions in favor of PdVSA, the
state-controlled oil company.
Now it appears that Chavez is teaming PdVSA up with other
state companies from around the world. For instance, PdVSA
and Vietnam's state-run Petrovietnam are conducting talks
about jointly developing the basin's heavy oil.
In addition to the likely Vietnam partnership, it appears
that Venezuela could also be involved in separate Orinoco
deals with the China National Petroleum Corporation --
perhaps through its
PetroChina (NYSE: PTR)
subsidiary-- and a Russian consortium. The reported
objective of all this activity is to increase the country's
production capacity by as much as three million barrels a day
in the next few years. Good luck, Hugo.
And speaking of Russia, that country apparently is headed
in the other direction, according to a Wednesday
Wall Street Journalarticle entitled "Russia Revives
Privatization." As
I told youjust last week, Vladimir Putin recently held a
confab with top executives from many of the world's biggest
oil companies. The purpose was to discuss partnerships to
develop the country's gas-rich Yamal Peninsula, where
Gazprom had been expected to go it alone.
Among the companies included
in the chilly gatheringnear the Arctic Ocean were
Shell (NYSE: RDS-A) and
StatoilHydro (NYSE: STO). Indeed, following
the meeting, Statoil's CEO Helge Lund
touted his company'sexperience in places like Yamal. As
he said, "One thing is to talk about an Arctic development
and another thing is to actually do it. We've done it
..."
Clearly, we haven't seen all the changes that will occur
among the forms that energy deals will take. Nevertheless, I
continue to favor ExxonMobil, the biggest and strongest of
the public companies, but StatoilHydro and its arctic
expertise has a full five-star rating in
Motley Fool CAPS. I'd
suggest that you add
your
assessmenton
both
companies, if you haven't already.
This article was originally published as
The Next Wave of Oil and Gas Partnershipson
Fool.com
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