The package of assets, included in the transaction is made up of producing assets across Vietnam and Indonesia alongside exploration and appraisal assets in Malaysia, Vietnam and also in Bangladesh.
Ophir will be adding nearly 13,500boepd of net working interest production in 2018 through the deal along with around 21.2mmboe to its net working interest reserves.
The company, which has production, development and exploration assets across Africa and Asia, said that the deal is in line with its strategy of rebalancing its portfolio towards a larger production and cash flow base.
Ophir has offered to buy Santos’ stakes in the producing Block 12 W in Vietnam, which has around 23,600boepd of gross production and the Madura and Sampang blocks in Indonesia from Santos.
Gas production from the Oyong, Wortel fields in the Sampang block, and the Maleo and Peluang fields in the Madura block is 11,500boepd, said Ophir.
In Vietnam, Ophir will buy stakes of Santos in the Blocks 123 and 124 exploration permits in frontier Phu Khanh Basin, which is known to have large oil/LNG scale potential.
Ophir has also agreed to buy a 20% stake from Santos in the R PSC, a deep water block offshore Sabah, Malaysia. In Bangladesh, the company will buy 45% operated stake in exploration Block SS-11, which is near the multi-Tcf producing fields across the Myanmar border.
Ophir CEO Nick Cooper said: “It is a declared strategic objective of Ophir to rebalance its asset base and become free cash flow positive in order to consider regularly returning capital to shareholders. This transaction accelerates the realisation of this goal.
“Ophir has maintained a strong balance sheet through the down cycle in order to benefit from such accretive opportunities that fit our established expertise.”
Cooper added that the assets to be acquired also provide a lucrative combination of operational upside and material cost synergies with the company’s existing production in Southeast Asia.
Earlier, this year, Ophir along with its partners had been awarded explorations rights to two offshore blocks in Mexico as part of the country’s offshore bid round 2.4.
