Page 15 - AfrOil Week 36 2022

AfrOil PROJECTS & COMPANIES AfrOil

Aminex says APT is making progress

on 3D seismic survey of Ruvuma block

TANZANIA ARA Petroleum Tanzania (APT), a subsidiary of between APT, with 50%; AIM-listed Scirocco
ARA Petroleum of Oman, is making good pro- Energy, with 25%, and Aminex, with 25%. Sci-
gress on its 3D seismic survey of the Ruvuma rocco has been trying to unload its stake, and on
block in southern Tanzania and expects to wrap August 31 it announced that it had arranged to
up its work next month. sell its holdings in the project to APT. In a sepa-
Aminex (Ireland), a non-operating partner rate statement, it said it had reached agreement
in the Ruvuma project, said in a statement on with the Omani company after TPDC opted not
September 1 that APT’s contractor had already to exercise its legal right of first refusal to buy the
collected more than half of the data needed to stake. (As of press time, the value of the deal had
complete its 338-square km data acquisition not been disclosed.)
programme from Ntorya, the largest field within The partners hope to begin extracting gas
the block. from Ntorya, has been estimated to contain 1.9
The contractor will have enough data to trillion cubic feet (53.81bn cubic metres) of gas
choose the drilling site for the Chikumbi-1 in place (GIP), in 2024. The ongoing work pro-
exploration well by mid-September, it esti- gramme at the block is expected to require up to
mated, and will then be able to complete the $140mn in capital expenditure, and Aminex has
seismic survey in mid-October. arranged to have its share of these costs (up to
The statement also noted that APT had $35mn) carried up until the start of commercial
reached an agreement in principle with Tanza- development. ™
nia’s government to revise the production-shar-
ing agreement (PSA) signed for the Ruvuma
block to accommodate natural gas production.
The original version of the PSA only fixed the
fiscal terms – including tax rates, royalties and
profit-sharing – for a project that involved crude
oil production, so the investors had to make a
separate deal that covered gas production. APT
negotiated that agreement on behalf of all share-
holders in the project.
Meanwhile, the partners have also begun
negotiations with the national oil company
(NOC), Tanzania Petroleum Development
Corp. (TPDC), on future sales of gas from the
Ntorya field. Aminex said in its statement that
talks between the parties had recently begun and
were still ongoing. However, it did not offer any
further details or say when a gas sales agreement
(GSA) might be signed.
Charles Santos, Aminex’s executive chair-
man, said: “We are delighted that operational
activities continue to progress on seismic acqui-
sition and processing, and look forward to pro-
viding further updates in due course. We are also
very pleased that progress is being made on the
commercial aspects of the development, with
gas terms on the Ruvuma PSA being agreed
and negotiations for the GSA currently ongo-
ing. This progress reflects the commitment of
the operator and the Tanzanian authorities to
work constructively together to advance this
extremely important project for the Tanzanian
energy sector. We would like to thank APT and
the Tanzanian authorities for their cumulative
efforts in progressing the project.”
Equity in the Ruvuma block is currently split The Chikumbi-1 well will be drilled at the Ntorya gas field (Image: Aminex)

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