Page 14 - AfrOil Week 13 2022

AfrOil PROJECTS & COMPANIES AfrOil

With the contingent payment subsidiary option
ruled out, FAR is now working to maximise the
value of its Gambian portfolio, which currently
consists of 50% equity stakes in and operator-
ships of Block 2 and Block 5. Its first preference
is to farm down its working interest and bring a
new partner on board, either to carry the cost
of drilling an additional exploration well in late
2023 or for a sale of the entire package, the state-
ment said.
If the farm-out involves a partial sale rather
than an outright sale, the company said, FAR
may assign its Gambian assets to a separate,
stand-alone listed entity in order to reduce its
own exposure to the costs of drilling a second
exploration well. This would be done after the
completion of the farm-out deal, and “[any]
such separate stand-alone entity would need
to be sufficient in size and operations to justify
such a listing,” the statement said.
Patrick O’Connor, FAR’s independent chair-
man, stressed the company’s desire to achieve
the highest possible returns from its investments Blocks A2 and A5 lie south of Senegal’s Sangomar block (Image: FAR)
in The Gambia.
“While we continue to focus on our core FAR has been working at Blocks A2 and A5
expertise as an oil and gas exploration company, since 2017. It has split equity in the project 50:50
we are seeking to extract maximum value for with Malaysia’s Petronas. The partners recently
our exploration assets in The Gambia by way of completed the Bambo-1 exploration well, along
farm-out with a financial carry, an outright sale with an accompanying sidetrack well Bam-
or ultimately a demerger,” he commented. “The bo-1ST1, and reported that they had observed
board is focused on the careful management of oil shows and identified additional exploration
the balance sheet and the unlocking of share- prospects. However, they did not actually make
holder value.” any discoveries. ™

UTM Offshore hopes to sign FEED contract

for Nigerian FLNG project next month

NIGERIA JULIUS Rone, the managing director and CEO
of Nigeria’s UTM Offshore, said on March 23
that his company expected to sign a front-end
engineering and design (FEED) contract for its
floating LNG (FLNG) project at the Yoho off-
shore oilfield sometime in April.
Speaking to LNG Prime, Rone said that the
deal would probably be finalised in the first half
of the month. “We are planning to sign the con-
tract on or before April 15,” he stated.
He also reported that the FEED contract
would be carried out by three companies: Japan’s
JGC, US-based KBR and South Korea’s Samsung
Heavy Industries (SHI). Both JGC and SHI have
extensive experience in building FLNG vessels,
and KBR will carry out an engineering review of The FLNG will process associated gas from the Yoho field (Image: ExxonMobil)
JGC’s work, he said.
Rone did not reveal the value of the deal involved in the pre-FEED study for the FLNG
or say when the three companies were likely project, with JGC carrying out preliminary
to begin executing the FEED contract. He did design work and KBR carrying out a third-party
note, though, that both JGC and KBR had been review of that work.

P14 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 13 30•March•2022