TAQA Targets $60 Billion in Investments by 2012
Abu Dhabi National Energy Co., or TAQA, plans investments worth $60 billion by 2012, a top company executive said Thursday. "We aim to attract $60 billion of investments by 2012, which means growth of 25% each year," TAQA's chief executive officer, Peter Barker-Homek told a conference call. TAQA plans to invest $20 billion each in North America and Europe and a further $20 billion between Pakistan, India and the Middle East. "For our downstream operations we are looking to expand in Morocco and India and are currently looking at Saudi Arabia, Europe and North America," Barker-Homek added. TAQA will also invest $1.46 billion over the next three years to boost output from its North Sea operations. By 2012, TAQA aims to produce 250,000 barrels a day globally for its upstream operations, by bulking up its European operations. The company said Thursday its second quarter net profit for 2008 grew 154% to 471 million U.A.E. dirhams ($128 million) on acquisitions. TAQA will reshuffle its portfolio so that its upstream and downstream operations will each equal 40% the company's production while midstream will contribute 20%, Barker-Homek added. The company's purchase of Shell U.K. Ltd. and Esso Exploration & Production Ltd.'s assets in six oil fields in the northern North Sea will contribute 40,000 barrels a day of oil, or recoverable reserves for between 10-12 years, Barker-Homek said. In the long term TAQA aims to have a debt-to-capital ratio of 70%. The company has liquidity worth about $4 billion, Doug Fraser, TAQA's chief financial officer said. "We are prepared to execute any acquisitions this year," Fraser said, without specifying what acquisitions TAQA was eyeing.
