Page 15 - AfrOil Week 50 2021

AfrOil NEWS IN BRIEF AfrOil

DEVELOPMENT High-level meetings between the countries within the upstream sector of the petroleum
demonstrate the close ties binding Mauritania industry, has appointed Striped Horse Resources
Maximising development and Senegal, particularly within the cultural, (SHR) as consultants.
The SHR team has many years of practical
political, social, and now, economical spheres.
of shared natural gas Backed by a history of successful cooperation experience of working within the Angolan oil
in many sectors – from mining to fisheries – the sector. They have long-term and ongoing rela-
resources between strong relationship between the two has now tionships with senior management in both the
extended into the mineral resource sector, ena-
National Oil, Gas and Biofuels Agency (ANPG)
Mauritania and Senegal bling the successful development of the joint and Sonangol, as well as with several independ-
ent, indigenous Angolan oil companies. SHR is
GTA project.
The success of the Grande Tortue/Ahmeyim With a high-level delegation from Mauritania tasked with sourcing opportunities with assets in
(GTA) natural gas project situated on offshore participating at MSGBC, Oil, Gas, & Power 2021 Angola (mainly onshore), which meet WCAT’s
waters straddling Senegal and Mauritania lies – taking place in Dakar, Senegal on December investment criteria, for the WCAT team to eval-
not so much in the massive scale of the natural 16-17 – dedicated panels and project updates uate. WCAT has already successfully completed
gas reserves discovered, but more so as an exam- on the GTA project will further emphasise the a thorough due diligence process with the Ango-
ple of how two countries can cooperate in suc- project’s role and value for both Mauritania and lan regulator ANPG as well with the national oil
cessfully co-developing joint natural resources. Senegal. company Sonangol, which is a prerequisite to
In 2015, US independent Kosmos Energy African Energy Chamber, December 14 2021 working with those organisations.
made a major natural gas discovery in an area As a secondary task, SHR will also consider
located in the ultra-deep waters straddling projects which meet WCAT investment criteria
Mauritania’s block C8 and Senegal’s Saint Louis SERVICES in Namibia.
Profond Block, revealing 15 trillion cubic feet Mandhir Singh, Chairman of Wildcat, com-
(425bn cubic metres) of recoverable gas reserves. PGS awarded 3D exploration mented: “Angola has always been a top target for
In December 2016, Kosmos Energy farmed out WCAT. The new Angolan government is com-
61% of its GTA share to UK major BP. Now, the contract in West Africa mitted to the eventual privatisation of SONAN-
GTA field is being developed as an LNG export GOL. As a result, Sonangol has been divesting
project with BP as the operator. PGS has been awarded a 3D exploration contract what it considers as non-core assets in prepara-
When major oil and gas discoveries began in West Africa. A Ramform Titan-class vessel is tion for a future IPO. WCAT believes that this
taking place from 2015 onwards, many inter- scheduled to commence the contract early Feb- divestment will provide a once in a generation
national stakeholders were skeptical about the ruary 2022 and will complete mid-March. opportunity to acquire a significant producing
short- to medium-term viability of the GTA, “We are very pleased with this contract award, oil asset at a reasonable price.
simply because the gas field lay between the and it proves that exploration continues to be an “Over the last year, WCAT has been working
two countries. But in fact, Senegal and Mauri- important part of our customers’ activities. The hard to raise its profile within the Angolan oil
tania have demonstrated that good diplomacy contract adds to our order book visibility for the sector, both within the government and private
and high-level dialogue can avoid cross-border first quarter of next year,’ says the President and sector. Unfortunately, WCAT has not been able
natural resource disputes with high-level discus- CEO of PGS, Rune Olav Pedersen. to travel to Angola due to the global pandemic.
sions between the two presidencies, parliaments PGS, December 13 2021 SHR will aid WCAT in having a local presence in
and respective ministries representing not only the capital Luanda. SHR will use its stakeholder
a viable but crucial approach. Wildcat Petroleum appoints network to facilitate meetings with interested
Accordingly, communication has and con- parties as and when international travel restric-
tinues to be key. Regular high-level discussions upstream advisory firm to tions ease between Europe and Angola. With the
continue to lead to the best possible coordina- assistance of SHR, WCAT will be able to take a
tion and cooperation that will further ensure secure assets in Angola much more aggressive stance in the new year
the long-term viability of the GTA gas project. to sourcing an appropriate producing asset in
According to Sahara Media, collaboratively, par- Wildcat Petroleum, a company targeting invest- Angola.”
liamentarians from both countries have touched ment opportunities in businesses and assets Wildcat Petroleum, December 13 2021
upon a variety of pressing issues including trans-
parency, the state of progress of the project, and
efforts underway to ensure transparency and
good governance at every stage of GTA.
During a meeting that took place on Novem-
ber 21 in Nouakchott, Mauritania, parliamen-
tarians of both countries made a number of
important recommendations for the future of
the GTA project, one of which included the crea-
tion of a joint investment fund for the future joint
exploitation of the GTA project. In addition to
calling for continued close cooperation between
all stakeholders, the two countries explicated the
need to have increased involvement from civil
society, universities, and exploration and pro-
duction companies.

Week 50 15•December•2021 www. NEWSBASE .com P15