Murphy Oil Sells 30% Stake in Malaysian Oil, Gas Assets for $2 bn

Murphy Oil Corporation on Tuesday announced it would sell 30 percent stake in its Malaysian oil and gas assets to Indonesian state owned energy company Pertamina for $2 billion in an all cash deal.

The effective date of the transaction will be January 1, 2014 with closing expected to take place in two phases. The first phase is expected to be completed in the fourth quarter of 2014 and the second phase is expected to be completed by the first quarter of 2015.

The transaction is subject to, among other things, the approval of Malaysian stated owned firm Petronas, Murphy said in a statement Tuesday.

The US firm Murphy said it will remain operator and continue to execute its development plans as well as grow through future exploration in both deep-water and shallow-water Malaysia.

Murphy holds majority interests in seven separate production sharing contracts (PSCs): Block K, Block H, Block P, SK 309, SK 311 and SK 314A, and three gas holding agreements in PM 311. In 2013, Murphy's Malaysia net production was about 86,000 boepd, and we booked total proved reserves 125 MMBO and 406 BCF, according to company's website.