Maple Energy to sell Peruvian assets

Independent Maple Energy announced on Monday that it expected to conclude a pending deal to sell a controlling stake in its Peru units to Peruvian construction firm Graña y Montero and Belgian ethanol company Alcogroup.

Local media had previously reported that the deal had fallen through, yet Maple Energy announced that negotiations were proceeding as planned and that shareholders would vote on the deal in November.

In the deal, Graña y Montero and Alcogroup will pay $4 million for a 40-percent stake in Maple Energy, increasing the companies’ holdings to 30.43 percent and 43.48 percent, respectively. As a condition of the deal, Graña y Montero will purchase Maple’s gas unit for $31 million.

Though Graña y Montero is primarily a construction firm, the move to purchase a stake in hydrocarbons blocks is not unprecedented – the 79-year-old company has also worked in exploration and production since the early 1990s, when it acquired production blocks I and V in the Talara Basin on Peru’s north coast.