September 11, 2001
Mitsui Oil Exploration Co., Ltd. and Mitsui & Co., Ltd. take Shares in
Novus Petroleum
The Mitsui Group, MOECO and Mitsui & Co., Ltd. (Mitsui), has jointly agreed on a placement of 23,900,000 shares by Novus Petroleum Limited (Novus), an Australian oil and gas exploration and producing company. This placement results in a shareholding of 13.03% and the Mitsui group will hold the largest share in the Company. The two companies plan to nominate one director to the Board of Novus.
Novus has approximately tripled its reserves over the last 5 years and currently it has assets in Australia, Asia, the Middle East and North America.
Moeco and Mitsui already have track record and large portfolios of oil and gas upstream assets through their LNG and Thailand offshore gas project respectively and are looking to build on these assets.
The purchase of shares in Novus is in line with the strategy mentioned above. The alliance with Novus is expected to provide excellent asset acquisition opportunities through the combination of their respective strengths.