Page 8 - AfrOil Week 10 2023

AfrOil INVESTMENT AfrOil

The PEL 87 block covers an area of 10,970 the quality of our portfolio and the continuing
square km and hosts the large Saturn turbidite emergence of the Orange basin as the world’s
complex, which is on-trend with major oil dis- next great hydrocarbon province,” said Robert
coveries made recently in the Orange basin such Bose, the president and director of Sintana.
as TotalEnergies’ Venus-1 discovery and Shell’s Bose further noted that PEL 87 had already
Graff-1 and La Rona-1. been mapped and that good-quality technical
There is at least one more working petroleum data had been collected. Together with data
system offshore Namibia, as evidenced by Shell’s from new survey, he said, Sintana and its part-
find at Jonker-1X at the PEL 39 block, Sintana ners can now mature more exciting prospects in
said. preparation for drilling.
“We are pleased to confirm further progress The anticipated uptick in drilling activity
on attracting capital and world-class partners over the next 12-18 months will further demon-
to our portfolio of assets in the Orange basin. strate the scale, scope and potential of the com-
The success in executing our strategy speaks to pany’s portfolio, he added. ™

Tullow Oil values Kenya assets at

$252.6mn, seeks strategic investor

KENYA TULLOW Oil (UK/Ireland) says its Kenya company said.
portfolio is worth $252.6mn but that gaining Tullow has, however, taken a significant step
a production licence would help attract a new towards gaining a production licence from the
strategic investor and unlock a higher valuation, government, which would ease the process
Business Daily reports. of attracting an investor, after submitting an
“In line with its accounting policy, the group updated field development plan (FDP) for the
has performed a value assessment of the Kenya Turkana oilfields, Business Daily reports.
asset following the identification of triggers Meanwhile, the delay has stirred community
for impairment and impairment reversal. This protests against Tullow, leading to vandalism of
resulted in a net present value significantly more its fields infrastructure and waste disposal sites,
than the book value of $252.6mn,” Tullow is leading to environmental pollution, said Muturi
quoted as saying. Kamau, the programmes manager at the non-
The Africa- and South America-focused oil profit Kenya Oil and Gas Working Group.
and gas explorer, which took in an estimated The $10mn that Tullow has earmarked
$1.7bn in revenue last year, has earmarked for Kenya amounts to just 2.7% of its planned
$10mn towards investments into Kenyan devel- $370mn investment in four African countries,
opment projects this year, as it continues to look the others being Ghana ($300mn), Gabon
for a strategic partner. ($40mn) and Côte d’Ivoire ($20mn). ™
However, delayed oil production has dis-
rupted investments in an oil refinery that
was planned for Lamu Port and the 825-km
Lokichar–Lamu pipeline.
Tullow has said the delay is partly due to the
government dragging its feet in issuing a licence
but also due to financial challenges that the com-
pany has faced in its Kenya business.
The company, however, faces the possibility
of having to write off the entire value of its Ken-
yan assets should it fail to resolve uncertainties
surrounding the project, Business Daily writes.
These include finding an acceptable investment
offer and government approval of the same,
obtaining financing for the project and meeting
government demands for a viable field develop-
ment plan.
“Should the uncertainties around the pro-
ject be resolved, there will be a reversal of a
previously recorded impairment. However, if
the uncertainties are not resolved there will be
an additional impairment of $252.6mn,” the Tullow has multiple blocks in Kenya (Image: Tullow Oil)

P8 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 10 09•March•2023