Page 6 - GLNG Week 25

GLNG afRiCa GLNG
Pressure mounts in Senegal over offshore allegations
PoLiCy
PRoTESTS in Senegal are mounting over alle- gations of dodgy dealing, with more planned. e energy industry is standing by Senegalese President Macky Sall, though, with Africa oil and Power (AoP) conference organisers nam- ing the president as “Africa oil man of the year” on June 24.
e recent bout of unrest follows a documen- tary aired by the UK’s state-run BBC, in early June. e report cited a payment of US$250,000 from Timis Corp. to a company linked to the president’s brother, Aliou Sall. e Timis com- pany also paid Aliou Sall a monthly stipend of US$25,000, for consultancy services.
Timis Corp, owned by Frank Timis, eventu- ally sold out its interests o Senegal, leaving BP and Kosmos Energy to pursue the Tortue LNG project. e companies reached a nal invest- ment decision (FId) on this in december 2018.
e BBC reported that the deal under which BP acquired Timis’ stake involved a US$250 million payment, with a royalty interest over the project’s life span worth US$9.3 billion.
Protests in dakar on June 21 called for improved transparency of the energy sector in Senegal. Some have also called for the pres- ident to resign. Some protestors were arrested and police used tear gas to control crowds. e authorities had refused to approve the plans for a demonstration.
Sall has launched an investigation into the allegations. Sall was re-elected as president ear- lier this year in a competition in which a num- ber of his leading opponents were incapable of running.
dakar’s former mayor, Khalifa Sall, had been imprisoned for corruption while Karim Wade, the son of a former president, was ineligible owing to residency issues.
Another competitor, ousmane Sonko, the head of the Pastef party, was alleged to have received payments from UK-listed Tullow oil. The company refuted the reports, which appeared to have been crudely falsi ed. Sonko had previously written a book, “Petrole et gaz au Senegal: chronique d’une spoliation”, which focused on Timis and his various interests in acquiring blocks o shore Senegal. ere were protests around the award of the blocks in 2016.
fighting back
BP, Kosmos and Timis have denied the allega- tions. A statement from Timis to the BBC noted the frontier risk of the exploration work. e o - shore development has “the potential to generate many billions of dollars revenue for the people of Senegal and provide gas to generate power which can be supplied across the whole of West Africa,
to the bene t of many millions more people,” he said.
Also rejecting the BBC’s reporting was BP, which denied that it had acted improperly. While refusing to provide details of the deal with Timis, it said that the royalty gure quoted was “absurd”. Furthermore, it said, any such sums would come from BP’s share of revenues, not from Senegal’s.
AoP, in its statement on awarding the Africa oil man of the year title to Sall, said the president had played a major role in Senegal’s transfor- mation to global hotspot. Sall had taken steps to “improve transparency, create an attractive investment environment and spark new growth”, it said. It also noted Sall’s cross-border work with Mauritania to allow the Tortue LNG develop- ment to go ahead.
In addition to the oating LNG plan, Cairn Energy is driving the SNE eld plan in Senegal, which is expected to reach FId this year. SNE will produce around 100,000 barrels per day (bpd) and begin producing in 2022.
e African Energy Chamber took a more aggressive stance in its support for Sall. The group described the BBC report as a “sinister rush to judgment”, in a statement on June 17. ere was an “obsession to taint a reform-driven president and the oil industry at any cost and by any means, and certainly without an under- standing of the facts and how the oil industry works”, it said.™
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Week 25 27•June•2019