Page 7 - AfrOil Week 06 2023

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Libya’s finance minister calls

on IOCs to resume investments

LIBYA KHALED Mabrouk, the finance minister of 1.5bn cubic feet (42.5 mcm) of gas per day and
Libya’s interim Government of National Unity is also trying to overcome heavy political bar-
(GNU), called on foreign oil firms to resume riers in order to fund and upgrade its ageing
their activities in Libya and assist National Oil infrastructure.
Corp. (NOC) in its efforts to resume oil and gas It seeks foreign investments to help lift oil
exploration and development operations. and condensate production from 1.255mn bar-
In a statement published on Saturday, Febru- rels per day (bpd) to around 2mn bpd in three
ary 4, Al-Mabrouk said the GNU fully supports to five years. ™
the efforts made by the NOC to develop the
hydrocarbon sector and increase production.
He was speaking shortly after NOC and the
Italian energy group Eni signed an agreement
worth $8bn to extract about 850mn cubic feet
(22.7mn cubic metres) from two offshore gas
fields in the Mediterranean Sea.
Libya lifted force majeure on oil and gas
exploration in December in a move to encour-
age foreign oil firms to resume their operations
in the country. The OPEC member took this
step in the hope that international oil companies
(IOCs) such as BP, Shell, TotalEnergies and Eni
will resume their activities and play a bigger role
in raising production and exports.
The North African country is also working
to attract foreign companies to look for natural
gas and crude oil in the offshore zone, as well
as resuming upstream work at the country’s
onshore fields.
The war-torn country currently produces Abu Sennan is an onshore licence area (Image: Kuwait Energy)

NFE strikes deal with Golar LNG on sale

of its entire stake in Hilli Episeyo FLNG

CAMEROON US-BASED New Fortress Energy (NFE) obligations stemming from its equity stake in
reported on February 6 that it had struck an the Hilli Episeyo, the statement said.
agreement with Bermuda-registered Golar LNG Wes Edens, the chairman and CEO of NFE,
on the sale of its entire stake in the Hilli Episeyo, said the deal would benefit both parties. “With
a floating LNG (FLNG) vessel operating off- this transaction, we will sell our minority inter-
shore Cameroon. est in the Hilli in exchange for 4.1mn shares of
In a statement, NFE explained that the agree- NFE and $100mn in cash,” he commented. “We
ment provided for Golar LNG to return 4.1mn believe this is a fair economic result for both our-
NFE shares and pay $100mn in cash in exchange selves and Golar.”
for all of NFE’s equity in the FLNG unit, which Edens added that the divestment was in line
is capable of turning out 2.4mn tonnes per year with NFE’s long-term business strategy. “Fur-
(tpy) of LNG. thermore, from a strategic perspective, it will
Under this arrangement, the number of NFE allow us to focus solely on our own FLNG port-
shares outstanding will come down to around folio that we own 100% of as well as buy back
204.7mn and NFE will shed $323mn in debt NFE stock at an attractive valuation,” he stated.

Week 06 09•February•2023 www. NEWSBASE .com P7