Mubadala Petroleum & Petrochemicals to finalise investments in Malaysia and US

Abu Dhabi investment company also considering expansion of Pakistan refinery

Mr Al Kaabi said the agreement could result in potential opportunities in Indonesia for Mubadala and its portfolio companies. Chris Whiteoak / The National

Mubadala Investment Company is close to taking final decisions on an international gas asset in Malaysia and a petrochemicals facility in the United States, its Petroleum & Petrochemicals chief executive said, with the expansion of its refinery in Pakistan also under consideration.

“We’re about to finalise final investment decision on a big gas discovery project in Malaysia," Musabbeh Al Kaabi told reporters on the sidelines of an energy forum in Abu Dhabi on Saturday.

"We’re the operator, we have two big reputable IOCs [international oil companies] with us on this project - Petronas and Shell.”

Mubadala, Abu Dhabi's state-owned investment company, announced significant gas discoveries in 2014 in the Pegaga gas development project in Malaysia, in which it holds a 55 per cent stake.

A decision on the project, which is said to hold trillions of cubic feet worth of gas reserves, will be taken “within the next few weeks”, said Mr Al Kaabi.

Malaysian state-owned Petronas has a 25 per cent interest in the project, with local Shell affiliate Sarawak Shell Berhad holding the remainder.

Mr Al Kaabi said last March at a conference in Kuala Lumpur that the partners were in "very active discussion" to "accelerate the development of the resource".

Mubadala will also look to make a financial investment decision on a new cracker on its polyethylene plant on the US Gulf Coast "during this month", Mr Al Kaabi added.

The petchems facility, which taps into US shale gas as a feedstock, was announced last March, as a US$1.7 billion joint venture between Mubadala subsidiaries Nova Chemicals and Borealis, together with France's Total.

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The facility forms part of plans by Abu Dhabi to substantially increase its petchems interests globally, as well as to expand domestic output by two and a half times to 11.5 million tonnes per annum  by 2025.

Mr Al Kaabi said last March at a conference in Kuala Lumpur that the partners were in "very active discussion" to "accelerate the development of the resource".

Mubadala will also look to make a financial investment decision on a new cracker on its polyethylene plant on the US Gulf Coast "during this month", Mr Al Kaabi added.

The petchems facility, which taps into US shale gas as a feedstock, was announced last March, as a US$1.7 billion joint venture between Mubadala subsidiaries Nova Chemicals and Borealis, together with France's Total. 

The facility forms part of plans by Abu Dhabi to substantially increase its petchems interests globally, as well as to expand domestic output by two and a half times to 11.5 million tonnes per annum  by 2025.

Mr Al Kaabi told delegates at the Atlantic Council's Energy Forum that plans were also under way to expand capacity at the Pak Arab refinery, located in the Pakistani port city of Karachi, "north of 200,000 barrels per day". The refining facility, the largest in Pakistan, has a current refining capacity of 100,000 bpd.

In the UAE, Mr Al Kaabi said Mubadala was in discussions with Abu Dhabi National Oil Company to look at "added value partnerships", giving no further details. 

Mubadala Investment Company, which was created after a merger with International Petroleum Investment Corporation in 2017, spent $5bn over the course of last year as it scouted for territories that offered low-cost energy investments such as in the US.

The firm currently manages around $126.7bn in assets following the merger, and has interests ranging from energy to aerospace and infrastructure. 

Mubadala's upstream subsidiary manages concessions in Abu Dhabi, Oman, Thailand, Vietnam and Indonesia and had working interest production averaging 320,000 bpd in 2016. Post-merger, Mubadala registered profit of $1.14bn for the first half of 2017, compared with a loss of $1.27bn for the same period in 2016.