Interesting news out today, it set off a frenzy on the boards..

1. The news: IOC hires Paribas and ABN-Amro to do deals
2. And some interesting observations
3. Who will be interested in IOC’s assets?
4. Mulacek interview says output of liquids targeted for next year
5. An engineer (petrengr) pondering over the upcoming DSTs
6. Map of IOC and OilSearch pipelines
7. Engineering riddles, stay tuned..

The plot thickens. The news stream over the following weeks and months looks like being considerable. There obviously is interest, a resource of this magnitude, and especially deliverability, doesn’t come that often, even less so in a country which doesn’t nationalize it, so oil majors will be interested for one.

These also have cash enough, and need to replace their own falling reserves. Asian utilities are the other obvious candidate for a deal. These take 25-30 year investment horizons and are currently profiting from low energy prices to lock in long-term supplies, which are a matter of national security.