Malaysia (non) M&A - PETRONAS to take over operatorship of PM assets from ExxonMobil

(Originally published on July 20, 2024)

There were plenty of media reports on Friday that a deal had been agreed that would see PETRONAS acquire ExxonMobil's remaining interest in their Peninsular Malaysia PSCs.

However, it appears to have been over-hyped and the deal simply sees PETRONAS take over operatorship of these two PSCs from ExxonMobil, with no change in working interest. In addition, it sounds like the agreement to change operatorship is not finalized, but I would expect this to happen in the coming months.

Rumours of this shift in operatorship have been bouncing around for a while, so it is not a big surprise.