Abu Dhabi National Energy Company, known as Taqa, has mandated the Australian investment bank Macquarie and the consultant group McKinsey to evaluate proposed asset sales as part of an ongoing review by the company.
Separately, the Canadian oil company ShaMaran Petroleum said drilling operations at the Chiya Khere-8 development in the Taqa-operated Artrush block in Kurdish Iraq had resumed. Drilling had been suspended for a total of 21 days by Taqa as a precautionary measure following recent regional developments, ShaMaran said.
Taqa declined to comment on either development.
Taqa’s chief operating officer, Edward LaFehr, has said consistently since he took over leadership of the company from the former chief executive Carl Sheldon in April that he would seek to sell “non-core assets” as Taqa pursues “a more focused approach”.
The Abu Dhabi government-controlled company focuses mainly on international utility investments and has assets valued at about US$33 billion. Last year it reported a loss of $686 million, mainly owing to a writedown on assets in North America where prospects have dimmed because of an oversupplied natural gas market. Mr LaFehr had previously been in charge of Taqa’s North American operations, where he streamlined operations and cut costs.
An official at one of the organisations involved in the asset sale proposals, who wished to remain anonymous, confirmed the mandate but declined to elaborate on its scope.
Last month, Taqa reported a sharp rebound in financial results for the first half of the year, with record gross earnings of Dh7.9bn, up 42 per cent on the previous year’s first half, with a recovery in stalled North Sea operations a big factor.
Mr LaFehr has highlighted Taqa’s Bergermeer gas storage project in the Netherlands, as well as power generation assets in Morocco, as the type of steady cash-generating projects the company considers core.
He has declined to specify what assets might be for sale, specifically deflecting comment on the future of the North American assets.
amcauley@thenational.ae
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