GP Firm Finds Success in the Kingdom

Angkor Gold has only been in the public eye since 2011, but the mineral exploration company has grown leaps and bounds, said the company’s Vice President of Corporate Social Responsibility Delayne Weeks.

The Grande Prairie based company has been mining holdings in Cambodia, one of the only North American companies to do so. The company owns seven mineral licenses, totalling 1,448 square kilometres across northeastern Cambodia, mining for various precious minerals such as iron ore, copper, gold and silver.

“We are the only North American company, public traded North American company, with any mining holdings in Cambodia,” said Weeks. “Cambodia matches the rest of Asia with really rich mineral findings but nobody has tapped in to Cambodia yet because it has really only had 20 years to (rebuild) the country since wartime.”

Weeks and her husband Mike, CEO of the company, established a base for the company in Grande Prairie called Prairie Pacific Mining Corp back in 2009, before going public with Angkor in 2011. They both have backgrounds in the oil and gas industry and Mike had prior experience with mining in North Africa. Their work and company standards have set the bar for other companies, according to Delayne.

“It’s been a different attitude and a different philosophy,” she said. “This little company based out of Grande Prairie has set really significant, high standards in the country because they just haven’t had any other company like ours come in and do what we’re doing.”

Most recently, the company announced a $10 million commitment with a Beijing merchant bank, which will provide the company with capital as well as a team of geophysicists and geologists to accelerate the company’s work.

Coming from a smaller region such as Grande Prairie and thriving as they have in a country such as Cambodia is a huge accomplishment, said Weeks. It’s something she is very proud of as the firm moves forward.

“I think it’s really significant for Grande Prairie and for Alberta that we can have a really successful small company set some standards that are going to be recognized world wide and it’s based out of the north here,” she said.

Source: Daily Herald Tribune | April 21, 2014 | By: Jocelyn Turner

Oil Refinery to Receive 1.67b Loan

Construction on Cambodia’s landmark oil refinery will break ground in December with funding from a $1.67 billion loan from the Export-Import Bank of China (Exim Bank), a deal that should go through today, according to a representative of local project partner Cambodian Petrochemical Company (CPC).

“After the signing for the money tomorrow [Wednesday], the groundbreaking ceremony for the construction will be held in early December,” CPC co-owner Hann Khieng said yesterday.

The development comes just a day after Cai Xiyou, the senior vice president of China-based oil giant Sinopec, met with Prime Minister Hun Sen in Phnom Penh at the Peace Palace. At the meeting, the premier asked the world’s fourth-largest oil producer to speed up the refinery’s construction, Hun Sen’s spokesman said.

“The PM encouraged the company to work on the project and asked for construction to finish as soon as possible,” Eang Sophalleth told reporters on Monday after the meeting.

Khieng, of CPC, added that Sinopec’s share in the partnership was still being negotiated, but he confirmed that the oil giant would be the major stakeholder.

Khieng added that discussions between CPC and Sinopec had been occurring prior to the meeting with Hun Sen.

The prime minister has called for refined oil – which would hypothetically first enter the country in crude oil imports or through off-shore extraction – to be flowing by 2018.

First announced in December, the $2.3 billion refinery is slated to be constructed on 80 hectares of land between the provinces of Preah Sihanouk and Kampot.

The venture is among CPC, Chinese Sinomach China Perfect Machinery Industry Corp and Sinopec.

Under the proposed arrangement, Sinopec would import crude oil to be processed at the plant.

The oil giant would also manage the export and domestic supply of the oil once refined.

After Exim Bank provides the $1.67 billion, the remaining funds will come from shareholders, according to Khieng.

Construction was initially targeted to begin earlier this year, but work was delayed due to lack of funds and so an environmental impact assessment could finish.

“The environment is very important, our earth is our earth,” Men Den, a spokesman for the Cambodia National Petroleum Authority, said last week when questioned about the delay.

But a refinery at this stage of oil industry development may be slightly premature, according to Danish oil and gas expert Tommy Christensen, chief executive officer of Go4 Bunker Cambodia.

“Before you consider a refinery, you have to consolidate your off-shore first, otherwise your economy will never work,” Christensen said in an August interview.

With offshore oil extraction still at least two years away, Christensen also said that the size of the planned refinery project was too much too soon.

Source: Phnom Penh Post | October 16, 2013 | By: May Kunmakara

Joint Venture will Take Part in Oil Explorations

Malaysia-based Hibiscus Petroleum Berhad has tied up with Rex International Holding Pte Ltd to participate in exploration opportunities in Cambodia and 10 other countries across the Asia-Pacific region, according to a statement released last Thursday.

Hibiscus’s wholly owned subsidiary Orient Hibiscus Sdn Bhd and Rex International Holding subsidiary Rex South East Asia Ltd have formed the 50-50 joint venture HiRex Petroleum Sdn Bhd, which will have the right of first refusal to participate in exploration opportunities across Southeast Asia as well as Australia and New Zealand.

HiRex will have the first right to participate in projects identified via the use of Rex Technology, a software-based tool that detects the presence or absence of oil based on seismic data without drilling.

“We can now use the technology in the Asia-Pacific, a region in which we are most knowledgeable and comfortable with,” Dr Kenneth Pereira, managing director of Hibiscus, said in the statement.

The statement said HiRex has the right to use the technology for five years with provisions for extension and “hopes to leverage on the technology to identify, select and invest in valuable concessions” in the 11 countries.

A spokesman for the Cambodian National Petroleum Authority could not be reached for comment yesterday.

The Edge Malaysia reported in January that Petronas, Malaysia’s national oil and gas firm, was again eyeing the Cambodian oil and gas sector almost three years after withdrawing from the Kingdom.

According to Mam Sambath, executive director of the NGO Development and Partnership in Action, more investors are likely to come into Cambodia in the near future and the government needs to ensure the appropriate legal framework is in place.

“The government has to prepare [itself] in terms of … how to have the relationship with those companies in terms of the rules, regulation and also the laws in terms of regulating this sector,” he said.

It has to insure the sector “is regulated in transparent manners and accountable manners as well”, he added.

Source: Phnom Penh Post (March 25, 2013)