Page 13 - FSUOGM Week 23

FSUOGM PROJECTS & COMPANIES FSUOGM
New Age for Lukoil in Congo Brazzaville
CONGO BRAZZAVILLE
RUSSIA’S Lukoil has struck a deal with pri- vately held New Age (African Global Energy) to acquire a stake in a licence in Congo Brazzaville, following a competitive process. Announcing the deal on June 6, Lukoil said it would take a 25% stake in the Marine XII licence for US$800 million. e deal is subject to various conditions, including approval from the government.
e licence holds ve elds, with proved and probable reserves of 1.3 billion boe.
Early production, from two fields, Nene Marine and Litchendjili, is running at 28,000 bpd of oil and condensate, with 1.7 mcm per day of gas.
Eni is the operator of the Marine XII licence, with a 65% stake, while Société Nationale des Pétroles du Congo (SNPC) has 10%. Eni claims to have discovered 3.5 billion boe on the PSC, putting the Nene Marine field as holding 1.5 billion.
e Italian company plans to increase the Nene Marine eld’s output to more than 140,000 boepd. Additional plans are afoot on the Minsala and Nkala elds.
SubstantialworkwascarriedoutonMarine XII in 2018. Drilling on Phase 2A of the Nene Marine project was completed and a sealine to connect Litchendjili installed. Engineering work was carried out on Phase 2B, with FID taken in December 2018.
New Age said it would use the cash from the sale to invest in other, early stage projects in its African portfolio, singling out the Marine III licence – adjacent to Marine XII – for such spending.
Lukoil’s president, Vagit Alekperov, said the Marine XII development had “explored reserves, substantial production growth potential, access to well-developed infrastructure and it also ts our technological expertise. On top of that, the
project is already free cash ow positive.”
e stake in the 571 square km block had been held by New Age M12 Holdings and is being taken by Lukoil Upstream Congo. e area is on the continental shelf, in water depths of 20
to 90 metres.
Moving on
New Age has a 75% stake in Marine III, with the other 25% held by SNPC. The private company said it intended to shoot more 3D seismic on the block this year, with an explo- ration well to be drilled by the end of 2020. is will target the same reservoirs developed on Marine XII.
New Age’s CEO, David Stoopin, said the sale was a validation of the company’s “strategy of identi cation and early entry into under-valued proven acreage with upside potential”. e coun- try “continues to be a key area of operations for New Age and the knowledge and understand- ing that we have gained from Marine XII will be applied to our work programme in the neigh- bouring block Marine III, where we have a high levelofequityandaretheoperator”.
In addition to recycling the proceeds of the sale into Marine III, New Age will also use the cash on the Etinde development in Came- roon, and exploration and appraisal work in South Africa and Ethiopia. Reports emerged in November last year that New Age was marketing its stake in the Congolese block. At the time, the price was estimated at US$1 billion.
New Age has a number of floating LNG (FLNG) plans under development, potentially including Etinde, and has raised the possibility of an FLNG unit on the Marine XII block.
According to Eni, there are plans for addi- tional gas production from Marine XII to go to the CEC power plant.™
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