Mubadala acquisition spurs energy appointment

21 May 2008
Abu Dhabi government-owned Mubadala Development Company has appointed the head of Aabar Energy to its oil and gas division, after completing the purchase of the company’s only asset earlier this month.

Aabar’s David Woodward will join Mubadala’s energy unit as chief operating officer after seeing through the $833m sale of the company’s Pearl Energy asset in Southeast Asia to the state-run firm.

In 2005, Mubadala signed a memorandum of understanding with the UK/Dutch Shell Group to form a strategic alliance, and it has also worked with Occidental in Libya and Oman (MEED 17:6:05).

Last year, it launched an oil field services firm to compete with industry giants Schlumberger, Halliburton and Baker Hughes in the Middle East (MEED 25:5:07).

Aabar says the sale of Pearl generated an estimated profit in excess of $100m. Part of the proceeds will be used as funds towards new investment opportunities to be identified by the company’s management.

A MEED Subscription...

Subscribe or upgrade your current MEED.com package to support your strategic planning with the MENA region’s best source of business information. Proceed to our online shop below to find out more about the features in each package.