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AfrOil INVESTMENT AfrOil

Occidental decides against

selling its Algerian assets

ALGERIA OCCIDENTAL Petroleum (US) has decided continue looking for a buyer in Ghana. If it suc-
against selling the Hassi Berkine oilfield and ceeds, it can use the proceeds of the sale to pay
other assets in Algeria, the head of the company down some of the debt it assumed to finance the
told analysts in a conference call earlier this purchase of Anadarko for $37bn. But if it retains
week. the Algerian assets, it will not be able to collect
Vicki Hollub, Occidental’s CEO, said the firm payment on that front. Hollub appears to be
had taken another look at its Algerian assets and hopeful, though, that the Algerian fields will be
had decided to classify them as a core part of profitable enough to compensate for that shift.
its portfolio. “It’s not that we gave up on selling Occidental had said previously that it hoped
Algeria,” she explained. “We believe that those to earn a total of $5bn from the sales of Ana-
assets there are [of] such high quality [that] darko’s Ghanaian and Algerian holdings. ™
they’re going to be very competitive with our
domestic assets. We want to be in Algeria.”
Occidental had said last year that it intended
to unload Anadarko’s assets in several African
countries, including Ghana, Mozambique and
South Africa, as well as Algeria. It arranged to
sell these holdings to Total under a sales and
purchase agreement (SPA) signed last year,
and the French major has already bought Ana-
darko’s stakes in fields in South Africa and
Mozambique.
In May of this year, though, Total confirmed
that it was abandoning attempts to complete
negotiations on the Algerian and Ghanaian sites.
It did so after Algeria’s government blocked the
deal, explaining that the terms of the SPA had
made the sale of Anadarko’s Ghanaian assets
contingent on the sale of the Algerian fields.
The SPA signed between Total and Occiden-
tal is due to expire in September 2020. The two
companies have already signed a waiver that
allows the latter company to begin marketing
Anadarko’s Ghanaian assets to other potential
buyers.
As such, Occidental is in a position to Hassi Berkine is one of Occidental’s Algerian fields (Image: Total)

Afreximbank commits $400mn

in funding for Mozambique LNG

MOZAMBIQUE THE African Export-Import Bank (Afrex- will play a key role in Mozambique’s economic
imbank) is to commit up to $400mn in guar- growth and support the wider region.
antees and direct lending to support the Area 1 The $400mn will be used to partially finance
LNG Project in Mozambique. the project development activities required
The total project is estimated to cost about to extract natural gas offshore, its transfer to
$24bn and is set to be one of the largest private onshore processing facilities and then its con-
foreign direct investments (FDIs) in Africa, and version to LNG for export to various markets
one of the largest LNG projects in the world. It around the world.

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